Weight Loss News

Replicas of Diet Drug Acomplia Extensively Swopped at Indian Pharmacies

16 Aug 2007

Going by the reports of Indian media, the copies of revolutionary diet drug Acomplia are widely sold devoid of a prescription at Indian pharmacies. A monthly supply of the drug is available at a petite amount of just $3.60.

Half-dozen pharmaceutical companies, including leading generic pharmaceutical giants like Ranbaxy and Cipla, attained approval from Indian regulatory authorities in last May to market their own versions of novel diet drug named rimonabant.

The drug's maker, Sanofi-Aventis also received the approval to sell its own relatively expensive diet drug in India in May, but so far didn't take final decision to put the diet drug on sale in the market. Available in Europe for over $100 per month, acomplia still did not get approval for sale in the United States.

While the generic versions of acomplia can be sold legally in India, together with the fact that pharmaceutical companies can lawfully produce generic equivalents of those medicines which are patented before 1995, the sale of these Indian equivalents is not permitted in the U.S., Canada and Europe.

However, with bleak chances of Acomplia or Zimulti getting approval for sale in the U.S. for at least next two years, desperate obese and overweight Americans are likely to use Indian versions of acomplia at large.

Meanwhile, some doctors are concerned about depressive side-effects of the diet drug which provoked the FDA's advisory panel to rebuff Acomplia's approval for sale in the U.S.

"This will result in potentially disastrous side effects when the market is flooded with generics. People will start taking them improperly", said Dr. Jeffrey Mechanik, an endocrinologist at Mt. Sinai Hospital in New York.

Though Indian regulators approved generic versions of rimonabant to be purchased only by a prescription, Indian media found many pharmacies involved in the sale of these diet pills without a prescription.