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American Morning
Dangerous Dietary Drugs
Aired August 22, 2001 - 10:34 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: Turning now to an issue that we're putting under the microscope throughout the day here on CNN: Dieting and weight loss.
Many people losing that battle of the bulge have turned to medical help, but for the patient, the doctor, and sometimes even the drugmaker, that approach can be a bitter pill to swallow.
Our medical correspondent news correspondent, Elizabeth Cohen, explains.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Tina Wilson has tried it all and failed. First, she went on an appetite suppressant called MERIDIA.
TINA WILSON: When MERIDIA hit, I was excited about that, hoping that MERIDIA would be very good. I tried MERIDIA, and it did absolutely nothing.
COHEN: So she moved on to Xenical, a drug that binds with some of the fat you eat and flushes it out of your body.
WILSON: It did not change the weight loss at all. I had some embarrassing moments on it because, you know, it causes gas and intestinal problems.
COHEN: Weight loss doctors interviewed by CNN say Wilson's experience is somewhat typical. They say while some of their patients have done very well on these drugs, most have not.
Dr. Steven Heymsfield, an obesity expert, says in his experience, a 200-pound person might lose only about 10 pounds on the drugs.
DR. STEVEN HEYMSFIELD, COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY: The weight loss is not very great with these drugs.
COHEN: Plus, the drugs aren't cheap, about $50 to $100 per month, which insurance usually won't pay for. Dr. Heymsfield says his patients weren't happy paying out of pocket for marginal results.
HEYMSFIELD: Especially if they're paying, knowing that taking the drug for a lifetime is what's needed. You don't just take it for a month or two months, once you stop taking the drugs you usually regain the weight again.
COHEN: Roche Laboratories, which makes Xenical, gave us this statement:
"Sales are not where we hoped they would be... It's going to take us longer than we originally anticipated to build the prescription weight loss category."
Abbot Laboratories, which makes MERIDIA, declined to be interviewed on camera. A spokeswoman told CNN, patients do lose significant amounts of weight on the drug and that Abbot has not been disappointed by the sales.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(on camera): So what's next for diet drugs? Well there are several new drugs in the pipeline. In fact, one researcher at Cornell University has tried combining MERIDIA with Leptin. He just did a study on mice that made the mice lose weight, so now he's going to trying it on people.
HARRIS: Yes, well good luck. A lot of folks are having that same sentiment. But I want to talk first of all about the things you brought in here, because there are so many products out there. Every time you go to a drug store or a grocery store, there's -- on some aisle -- there's some other new thing or whatever, some other new product that's not a drug that people are buying by the ton, if you will, to try to lose some weight.
And I have a question for you. Do any of them really work?
COHEN: You know what, in a way, we don't really know if they work. They are not regulated by the FDA. The FDA regulates drugs that you see over the counter, but they don't rate -- drugs you see by prescription, rather, but not over the counter.
And what you see here costs about $75. I mean, that is a lot of money for just the products that you are seeing. This bottle alone, this is one of my favorites, it says, "lose up to 10 pounds in 48 hours."
(CROSSTALK)
HARRIS: Yes, I've seen the commercial for this one.
COHEN: 10 pounds -- that's not safe. I mean doctors will tell you, you don't want to do that. They've even trade marked that little logo: "Lose up to 10 pounds in 48 hours."
This cost $20, this bottle is $20.
HARRIS: What's it do to you, though?
COHEN: Excuse me?
HARRIS: What does it do to you? COHEN: Well, you know, it's unregulated, who really knows.
HARRIS: Who knows.
COHEN: I mean it looks to us like it's a lot of fruit juice and vitamins, and that seems pretty expensive for that. But that is one of the concerns: What do these do to you?
Again, the FDA does not regulate over the counter dietary supplements, and the FDA is concerned that some of these might actually cause harm. They have received reports of various over the counter dietary supplements causing everything from hepatitis, to heart attacks, even to death. So, in a way, it's buyer beware. I mean you are taking certain risks when you take these drugs.
You also have to have a certainly amount of healthy skepticism. Let's take a look down here. This product right here is called Exercise In A Bottle. Now, anyone who truly believes that you can take a pill and that that will replace the health effects of exercising, I guess you could say it's kind of getting what they deserve. Right?
HARRIS: Elizabeth, I've got to tell you, that is the American way.
COHEN: You're right, everyone wants the magic bullet, everyone wants these fast answers. You're taking risks when you take these pills that you might not know about. And even if they work, you would have to take them for life, and that's expensive.
HARRIS: That's right, unless you change your life style...
COHEN: Exactly, exactly.
HARRIS: ... which is the advice that experts like you always use.
COHEN: Exactly, exactly. All right, thanks much, Elizabeth Cohen. We appreciate the show-and-tell. And take your junk out of here, your things that don't work. Let's try to find something that does.
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