Return to Transcripts main page
American Morning
What Effect Will Xenical Have on Obesity in Children?
Aired December 22, 2003 - 09:24 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.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: For the first time, government regulators are giving the OK for the use of a weight loss drug to treat overweight children. How big an impact could this have and the obesity problem among teenagers? That is a topic this morning for Dr. Sanjay Gupta. It's also the topic of his column this week in "TIME" magazine.
Sanjay, good morning.
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Soledad.
Well, it's hard to say how big an impact this could have right now. Certainly obesity has had a significant impact. When we were kids obesity wasn't something that kids really thought about. Most kids were a little too skinny, probably.
In 1980 only 5 percent of kids were obese. Those numbers have tripled over the last 20 years and that certainly raised a lot of concern for lots of folks.
So there's a new medication out now that is a new tool in the war against obesity for children. And the FDA for the first time ever has given the nod to a medication for children to fight obesity. The medication is Xenical, also called Orlistat.
Now this medication's actually been around since 1999, approved for adults. Some doctors have been using it off label use for kids already. This is -- the FDA actually requested that the makers of this medication, Hoffman-LaRoche, actually study this in the pediatric population. That's how concerned they were about it. And the medication, as we mentioned, did get the approval.
Now how effective is it? That's the question. Obviously a lot of people asking. Well there's been a couple of studies out there. The biggest one looked at 357 children. All of them adolescents, 12 to 16-years-old. All of them significantly overweight.
What they found was that kids who were put on just a low-fat diet versus a low-fat diet with the medication, those on the medication and the low-fat diet had a greater reduction in their body mass index which is the ratio of weight to height. They gained less weight even during the growth spurts of adolescence. And it had no significant effect on mineral absorption and secretion.
And that led the researchers to conclude that there are groups who would benefit the most from this medication. Those are adolescents who need to lose 10 to 20 percent of their body weight. They're able to comply with a low-fat diet, not always that easy. Some who need to lose weight for medical reasons. And part of an overall behavioral change.
Soledad, it's hard to say in adults if they stop the medication, a lot of that weight came back on. That could happen with adolescents, as well. So difficult to say how significant an impact it will be -- Soledad.
O'BRIEN: How about side effects, Sanjay?
GUPTA: Well, it's sort of interesting. Because if you look at the way this medication works, it actually works different than a lot of other medications.
It basically blocks the absorption of fat so you can see the side effects there that might occur. These can be distressing, embarrassing even for adolescents to have those sorts of side effects.
And again, if a child dips into a fatty treat like ice cream or something like that, the side effects, the diarrhea, things like that, can be very problematic, and somewhat disturbing.
So a lot of kids will be more likely to stop the medication than the ice cream -- Soledad.
O'BRIEN: Dr. Sanjay Gupta. Sanjay, thanks.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired December 22, 2003 - 09:24 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: For the first time, government regulators are giving the OK for the use of a weight loss drug to treat overweight children. How big an impact could this have and the obesity problem among teenagers? That is a topic this morning for Dr. Sanjay Gupta. It's also the topic of his column this week in "TIME" magazine.
Sanjay, good morning.
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Soledad.
Well, it's hard to say how big an impact this could have right now. Certainly obesity has had a significant impact. When we were kids obesity wasn't something that kids really thought about. Most kids were a little too skinny, probably.
In 1980 only 5 percent of kids were obese. Those numbers have tripled over the last 20 years and that certainly raised a lot of concern for lots of folks.
So there's a new medication out now that is a new tool in the war against obesity for children. And the FDA for the first time ever has given the nod to a medication for children to fight obesity. The medication is Xenical, also called Orlistat.
Now this medication's actually been around since 1999, approved for adults. Some doctors have been using it off label use for kids already. This is -- the FDA actually requested that the makers of this medication, Hoffman-LaRoche, actually study this in the pediatric population. That's how concerned they were about it. And the medication, as we mentioned, did get the approval.
Now how effective is it? That's the question. Obviously a lot of people asking. Well there's been a couple of studies out there. The biggest one looked at 357 children. All of them adolescents, 12 to 16-years-old. All of them significantly overweight.
What they found was that kids who were put on just a low-fat diet versus a low-fat diet with the medication, those on the medication and the low-fat diet had a greater reduction in their body mass index which is the ratio of weight to height. They gained less weight even during the growth spurts of adolescence. And it had no significant effect on mineral absorption and secretion.
And that led the researchers to conclude that there are groups who would benefit the most from this medication. Those are adolescents who need to lose 10 to 20 percent of their body weight. They're able to comply with a low-fat diet, not always that easy. Some who need to lose weight for medical reasons. And part of an overall behavioral change.
Soledad, it's hard to say in adults if they stop the medication, a lot of that weight came back on. That could happen with adolescents, as well. So difficult to say how significant an impact it will be -- Soledad.
O'BRIEN: How about side effects, Sanjay?
GUPTA: Well, it's sort of interesting. Because if you look at the way this medication works, it actually works different than a lot of other medications.
It basically blocks the absorption of fat so you can see the side effects there that might occur. These can be distressing, embarrassing even for adolescents to have those sorts of side effects.
And again, if a child dips into a fatty treat like ice cream or something like that, the side effects, the diarrhea, things like that, can be very problematic, and somewhat disturbing.
So a lot of kids will be more likely to stop the medication than the ice cream -- Soledad.
O'BRIEN: Dr. Sanjay Gupta. Sanjay, thanks.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
