The European Medicines Agency (EMA) has accepted the submission by Arena Pharmaceuticals of their Marketing Authorisation Application for Lorcaserin. This does not mean that Lorcaserin is approved, it simply means that all the information that the agency requires has been submitted and the application is in order. It will be months before we hear anything again from the EMA.
If Lorcaserin is approved, in order for a patient to be prescribed this weight loss treatment, they must be either obese or overweight with one weight related co-morbid condition. Lorcaserin targets the area in the brain that controls appetite and clinical trials shown modest but satisfactory results in terms of weight loss. There were other improvements such as lower blood pressure and heart rate that can be associated with weight loss in any event.
In America, the pharmaceutical company submitted a New Drug Application to the Food and Drug Administration at the end of 2011 and news is expected on that front come the end of June, 2012. Arena has had to provide additional information to the FDA and we expect this one to go through given the burgeoning weight problem and the dearth of pharmaceutical intervention tools.