ANTI-FAT DRUG SET FOR LAUNCH; BUT DIETERS IN L.A. MIGHT HAVE TO WAIT.Byline: Daily News Staff and Wire Services Weight-conscious Americans who have been struggling since the last diet craze ended in a drug recall got good news Thursday: The anti-obesity drug Anti-obesity drugs include all pharmacological treatments intended to reduce or control weight. Because these drugs are intended to alter one of the fundamental processes of the human body, anti-obesity drugs are medically prescribed only in cases of morbid obesity, where weight Meridia hits most pharmacy shelves this week. But when Los Angeles-area pharmacies get the new drug depends on when it reaches distributors - and that probably won't happen for a while. A spokesman at Bergen Brunswig Corp. in Valencia, one of the region's largest pharmaceutical distributors, said the company isn't due to receive a shipment until the end of this month. The company has about 1,250 customers from Los Angeles Los Angeles (lôs ăn`jələs, lŏs, ăn`jəlēz'), city (1990 pop. 3,485,398), seat of Los Angeles co., S Calif.; inc. 1850. to north of Fresno. Knoll Pharmaceutical Co., the maker of the drug, is already trying to portray it as very different from the two that were pulled from the market in August. The company says it will try to keep casual dieters from using it for cosmetic slimming. ``We are reaching out to doctors to partner with them to ensure that Meridia is used on the right patients, in the right way, for the right reasons,'' Knoll marketing head Steve Freeman Steven Jay Freeman (born May 8, 1953 in Lamesa, Texas) is a former American football defensive back. After playing college football at Mississippi State University, he was selected by the National Football League's New England Patriots in the 1975 NFL Draft. said Thursday. It's the first prescription anti-obesity drug to hit the market since American Home For the American mortgage lender, see . The American Home is a center of intercultural exchange located in Vladimir, Russia. The home is designed to model a typical American suburban home and its main focus is the ESL school that provides lessons for Russian students. Products Corp. recalled Redux Refers to being brought back, revived or restored. From the Latin "reducere." and fenfluramine - half of the popular ``fen-phen'' diet combination. The FDA FDA abbr. Food and Drug Administration FDA, n.pr See Food and Drug Administration. FDA, n.pr the abbreviation for the Food and Drug Administration. requested the recall after the drugs were linked to potentially fatal heart-valve damage. With one in three Americans overweight, the potential market is enormous. Knoll, a unit of Germany's BASF AG BASF AG German chemical and plastics manufacturing company. Founded in 1865, BASF (the full German name means “Baden Aniline and Soda Factory”) was part of the chemical cartel IG Farben from 1925 until 1945, when the latter was dissolved by the Allies. , expects the drug's global sales to peak at $400 million to $500 million a year. Some analysts say it could do far better than that. So far, the new thin drug is not making a big local impact. Pharmacist Paul Snyder at Chatsworth Pharmacy said he has not received the drug but plans on stocking it. However, he does not expect it to generate the kind of frenzy that fen-phen did. ``People are a little nervous because of the negative things that happened when Redux and Pondimin were pulled from the market,'' he said. Doctors at Nutri/System, a chain of diet clinics with 100,000 clients, will start writing prescriptions as soon as it's in drugstores, said Brian Haveson, the company's president. Other, older diet drugs are still available, and Pfizer Inc. and Roche Laboratories are working on future drugs. |
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