UK obesity drug Rxs pass million, increasing eightfold over 1999
More than one million National Health Service prescription items were dispensed to treat obesity in England in 2006 - eight times the amount in 1999. The number of items dispensed in primary care was 1.06 million in 2006, compared to 127,000 in 1999, a report for The Information Centre for health and social care shows.
The majority of these were for two drugs: sibutramine (US health care major Abbott Laboratories' Reductil) and orlistat marketed as Xenical by Swiss giant Roche). Sibutramine alters chemical messages to the brain that control feelings and thoughts about food, while orlistat prevents some fat absorption in the intestine.
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