The European Medicines Agency has suspended authorisation for this drug, Reductil (also known as Reduxade and Zelium) across the European Union. It is known as Meridia in the USA. The Agency now believe the risks of these drugs to be 'greater than the benefits'.
http://www.ema.europa.eu/pdfs/human/referral/sibutramine/3940810en.pdf.
The drugs have been widely used to treat obesity, and of course, highly profitable, but have been found to cause increased risk of serious, non-fatal cardiovascular events, such as stroke or heart attack. The Agency also concluded that the benefits of the drug were 'modest', and were not maintained when patients stopped taking it.
The withdrawal of 'wonder drugs' is, of course, a regular event.
Patients searching for safe medicine, however, should notice that the mainstream media does not publish this. It rarely does. In fact, no-one tells us; not the government, the NHS, or our doctors. Patients have been, or will be advised to see their doctors privately - but the media's silence on these matters indicates not only that mainstream drugs are dangerous, but that we don't realise it, and the mainstream media sources are reluctant to inform their readers/viewers/listeners. We are to be left in ignorance rather than the media running the risk of upsetting a major source of advertising!
Also, if you go to the manufacturers website, http://www.reductil.co.uk/ukreductil.html, you will see that the news has not reached there either as yet! This is what the website still says
"UK Reductil slimming pills, have proved to be an effective prescription weight loss pill. Reductil just works to promote fast weight loss. More doctors prescribe Reductil in the UK then all the other weight loss pills combined".
Nor can I see, on a site offering to sell the drug, any mention of the DIEs (disease inducing effects; I refuse to call strokes and heart attacks side-effects) which have been known for many years.
Reductil, and its related drugs, were fully tested, and of course found to be both effective and safe for use. It was licensed in 1999. So much for the safeguards of 'science', at least the chequebook, 'junk' science the Pharmaceutical Companies use to promote their wares.
http://www.ema.europa.eu/pdfs/human/referral/sibutramine/3940810en.pdf.
The drugs have been widely used to treat obesity, and of course, highly profitable, but have been found to cause increased risk of serious, non-fatal cardiovascular events, such as stroke or heart attack. The Agency also concluded that the benefits of the drug were 'modest', and were not maintained when patients stopped taking it.
The withdrawal of 'wonder drugs' is, of course, a regular event.
Patients searching for safe medicine, however, should notice that the mainstream media does not publish this. It rarely does. In fact, no-one tells us; not the government, the NHS, or our doctors. Patients have been, or will be advised to see their doctors privately - but the media's silence on these matters indicates not only that mainstream drugs are dangerous, but that we don't realise it, and the mainstream media sources are reluctant to inform their readers/viewers/listeners. We are to be left in ignorance rather than the media running the risk of upsetting a major source of advertising!
Also, if you go to the manufacturers website, http://www.reductil.co.uk/ukreductil.html, you will see that the news has not reached there either as yet! This is what the website still says
"UK Reductil slimming pills, have proved to be an effective prescription weight loss pill. Reductil just works to promote fast weight loss. More doctors prescribe Reductil in the UK then all the other weight loss pills combined".
Nor can I see, on a site offering to sell the drug, any mention of the DIEs (disease inducing effects; I refuse to call strokes and heart attacks side-effects) which have been known for many years.
Reductil, and its related drugs, were fully tested, and of course found to be both effective and safe for use. It was licensed in 1999. So much for the safeguards of 'science', at least the chequebook, 'junk' science the Pharmaceutical Companies use to promote their wares.
