A wonder pill that that could help people lose weight, stop smoking and may even reduce the risk of heart disease could be available within two years, according to research unveiled yesterday.
Results from the first 12 months of a two year trial into Rimonabant were issued at the European Society of Cardiology in Munich and show that 40% to 45% of overweight and obese people in the trial lost 10% of their weight.
The drug also reduced the harmful blood fats and the metabolic syndrome which leads to diabetes. Being overweight, smoking and diabetes are all factors in heart disease.
Rimonabant works on a newly-discovered system in the brain which is involved in motivation and control of appetite as well as the urge to smoke. The drug was derived, in part, from observing how cannabis smokers develop the "munchies" - an overwhelming urge to snack.
Dr Nick Finer, consultant in obesity medicine at Addenbrooke's Hospital, in Cambridge, who was involved in the study on diabetic patients, said the drug "could be a major advance in the management, not just of obesity, but of the risk factors of obesity".
"We are excited for several reasons. One is the trial has given superb results in terms of weight loss.
"Two, it actually incredibly closely mirrors the result of an earlier trial of people who had lipid disorders." [abnormal levels of cholesterol in the blood that put men and women at risk of heart disease.]
"Three, information about the effects of the drug performing independent of weight loss in improving HDL cholesterol by about 25% - that is a huge increase and that is something we don't have drugs for at the moment."
Across the world 13,000 people are involved in seven Rimonabant trials which are looking at its effect on weight, smoking and diabetes.
Dr Finer said the he thought the drug would be useful in the first instance for people who ran a high risk of heart disease of strokes and who had not succeeded in dieting.
"It is looking exciting, and I think not only will it be a very useful treatment for patients, but I think it has the potential for changing the focus away from obesity being lifestyle to place it where it should be: at the heart of metabolic and cardiovascular risk."
He added: "It is not true to say people who are obese have no will power. My patients have lost 10 times more weight than other people but they can not keep it off."
Dr Finer said that reducing weight meant reducing heart disease and diabetes. "I do not think this drug will be some sort of short-term fix. It is like cholesterol and blood pressure pills; it is the kind of drug people might be taking long term."
The study was carried out with 1,507 overweight or obese men and women in 60 centres across Europe and the US.
Patients in the study on Rimonabant lost an average of 3.5 inches around their waists over the year, with some 39% on the drug losing more than 10% of their initial body weight. Insulin response improved, and HDL cholesterol increased by 27% in those on the drug - more than those on the placebo "implying a significant direct effect of the drug on lipid metabolism", according to a University Hospital Antwerp spokeswoman.
