News March 2007

Alli gets FDA’s green signal as first non-prescription diet pill

Alli, the first non-prescription diet pill, was recently given a green signal by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and can be purchase from this summer by anyone above 18 years of age.

The pill inhibits lipase, an enzyme, which breaks down fatty acids, thus preventing the digestion of fat into the building block of fat. Apart from blocking around 25 percent of the fat, Alli also blocks absorption of some vitamins.

According to doctors, patients taking Alli should follow the recommended diet regimen or will have other side effects like loose stools, oily spotting or even diarrhea etc.

Brian Jones, VP of communications of GlaxoSmithKline, which manufactures Alli, said Alli is different from other weight-loss drugs as the patients also get a starter pack that includes a recipe book, a calorie counter, food journal and a shuttle to hold daily pills. One will also have to do regular workouts to get better results from Alli.

Some are upbeat about the diet pill while some are skeptical about Alli.

Keith Willmore, medical director, said the pill motivated many of his patients to adhere to healthier lifestyle and most of his patients have either changed their diet plans or have stopped taking it.

While, Lora Beth Brown, an associate professor of nutrition, dietetics and food science, is skeptical about Alli diet pill.

She expressed pity that people have to pay to get these side effects linked with Alli diet pill and added that despite all these advertisements about loosing weight, what will work for overweight people is, healthy diet and regular exercise.