Whilst several drugs are offered for short-term weight loss, there is only one particular FDA-approved prescription drug for lengthy-term weight loss: Xenical from Roche, which is seldom prescribed due to unpleasant digestive side effects and modest weight loss.

Experts say the challenge of weight loss drug development lies in safely turning off one of the body’s fundamental directives: to consume sufficient food to preserve its current weight.

The decadeslong search for an successful diet program drug is littered with failures, most notably the fen-phen mixture, which was linked to heart damage in 1997. The cocktail of phentermine and fenfluramine was a preferred weight loss mixture prescribed by medical doctors, though it was never approved by FDA.

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