The European Union has taken Acomplia off the market. Acomplia is a weight loss drug developed by pharmaceutical group Sanofi-Aventis. The European Medicines Authority concluded that the risks involved in using the drug do not outweigh its positive effects. A recent study has shown that people taking the drug are twice more likely to develop psychiatric disorders. Now, maybe it’s just me, but i’d rather be a bit overweight than that. Interestingly, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) have never actually approved the drug for sale on the US market.

Sanofi-Aventis, the French pharmaceutical group, suffered a crippling blow to the prospects for its weight-loss drug Acomplia yesterday when regulators ordered the product to be withdrawn across the European Union.

The European Medicines Authority concluded that the benefits no longer outweighed the risks for the drug – known generically as rimonabant – after reviewing data suggesting that obese and overweight patients had twice the risk of psychiatric disorders as those on a placebo.

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