DIET CENTERS SEEKING TO FEAST ON NEW PILLS.

Byline: Dana Canedy The New York Times

Last summer, Jenny Craig Inc.'s revenues and stock plummeted after a new weight loss drug hit the market, luring away customers eager to try a quick fix.

The company, founded on a philosophy of sensible eating and increased exercise, decided to leap on the bandwagon. Within months, it had doctors available to prescribe the diet pills at all its 630 centers. The slide in sales slowed, and last month the company boasted that new sign-ups were up this year.

Jenny Craig was not the only commercial diet-center operator to turn to drugs to cure its financial ailments. More than a half-dozen national and regional chains are likewise enlisting doctors to dispense pills through ``medically supervised'' programs they are promoting along with their traditional fare of prepackaged entrees and weekly weigh-ins. The switch is generating so much new business that revenues for the $1.9 billion industry are expected to grow 5.5 percent this year.

Critics fear that doctors at some centers will prescribe the pills to people who simply want to drop a few pounds.

They also wonder whether the physicians, most working at the diet centers part time, will be familiar enough with the customers' medical histories to turn away those who should not take the drugs.

The diet center market became so saturated that one out of four has shut down recently, said Marketdata, a research firm in Tampa, Fla.

John LaRosa, Marketdata's research director, says prescription medication is crucial to their future. ``This is here to stay,'' he said. ``There will be pressure on commercial companies to add this to their programs.''

Not all companies are signing on. Weight Watchers International Inc., the leader in the weight reduction business wants no part of pill popping. It has said the practice, goes against everything it stands for and adding that only a patient's primary care doctor has any business prescribing drugs.