It was announced last week that the advisory panel to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has recommended approval to market Qnexa as the latest weight loss treatment for obese patients. Vivus, the pharmaceutical company responsible for the drug, must be quietly confident as the deadline for the FDA’s final decision approaches and what’s more, the votes came in at 20 to 2 from the advisory panel. This is exciting news for Vivus considering the FDA tends to go with the recommendation of the panel, even if they are not bound to do so. The FDA will make their decision on 17th April so we will be updating you shortly about the Qnexa’s success stateside.
The pharmaceutical company also submitted an application to market Qnexa in Europe in 2010. To date, there has been no news since the application was filed, although if the drug is approved in the States, it looks more likely to be marketed here in Europe after it gets the approval of the European Medicines Agency. While there have been no formal announcements from the European Medicines Agency regarding Qnexa, we have heard that a statement will be issued in the next few weeks.
In other diet pill news, it is believed that Arena will file a marketing authorization application with the European Medicines Agency tomorrow (2 March 2012) for Lorcaserin, a medication that has shown less promise than Qnexa but still meets the minimum weight loss requirements for approval. We will keep patients posted on any progress.