In November, 2007 the British Medical Journal published a new piece of meta-research into the relative effectiveness of Orlistat, Meridia and Acomplia. The difficulty with conventional research is that each individual study usually only involves a few hundred volunteers. Although these studies have to be “statistically significant”, i.e. it must be reasonable to scale up the results so that they will offer a reasonable chance of being replicated in the community at large, one study cannot be anything more than an indicator. To get the best results, you need to take a number of published clinical trials and reanalyse the data to determine whether there are trends. This is what a meta-researcher does. (more…)

  Today, I am going to deal with three pieces of back-to-back news about the weight loss market in general and Acomplia in particular.

Decision Resources is one of the world’s leading research firms on health care and pharmaceutical issues. In a recent report, it confirms that obesity has reached epidemic proportion in seven of the world’s major markets: France, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, Japan, Spain and the United States. Given the potential need for effective treatments, the company predicts that the market will grow fivefold by 2016 from the base figures in 2006 where sales are estimated at $478 million to $2.7 billion. (more…)

  On the 26th March, Sanofi-Aventis, the third largest pharmaceutical manufacturer in the world, announced that the UK’s National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE), had approved Acomplia for use in the National Health Service (NHS). NICE is a non-governmental organisation. It plays the role of a gatekeeper and, if it approves a medication, its use in the NHS is subsidised out of public funds. Up to now, Acomplia has had approval granted by the European Medicines Agency (EMEA) for use on private prescription only. So patients have had to pay the full retail price for Acomplia. This decision by NICE means that patients who have a BMI of 30 or more, or a BMI of 27 with associated risk factors, can now get treatment without having to pay for Acomplia (the change of diet and the introduction of physical exercise have no additional cost implications). This is a small step forward for Sanofi-Aventis which has a good product but has found it difficult to promote its use. (more…)

  The girls rabbiting on about love handles didn’t hurt my pride — what’s left to hurt when you’ve been prodded and poked in a hospital — but made me take a proper look at myself. Now I’m less hooked on the idea of Acomplia, I can look in the mirror and not flinch. I’ve got spectacular scars on my chest with all the stitches out. But I’ve really gone to seed. I’m quite tall and big boned. Now, I’m looking like a half-melted candle with my head sticking up as the wick. (more…)

As part of my post-Acomplia therapy, I rang the foreman down at the factory. He said they were keeping my old job for me. In fact, truth be told, he said they were missing me. The younger kids couldn’t hack it at all when it came to the kind of work I could do in my sleep, so the sooner I got back to work the better for everyone. (more…)

This district nurse — Molly’s her name (some Irish connection in her family, apparently) — has the right end of the stick on all this. She thinks I’m still living in a dream world, not connecting to the real world at all. All I’ve been thinking about since that doctor mentioned it, is this Acomplia. As if a pill can solve all my problems. Like sex. Not getting it up? Take a little blue one. Got blood clots? Take rat poison and hope you don’t die too. (more…)

So there I am hiding myself away in this nursing home while whoever the manufacturer is decides to get his act together and get this Acomplia on the market. It’s frustrating. Here I am — been close to death twice now — and I need this Acomplia to pull me round. The way that doctor was talking, I pop an Acomplia or three and it’s the job done. Shame someone doesn’t know someone on the inside as can slip us a bottle or two on the quiet. (more…)

So, there I am lying on the settee in the living room fantasising about having Acomplia to save me from myself when the front door bell goes off like a clap of thunder. I’ve managed to clean up the mess of vomit in the bathroom and get myself downstairs, but death still feels like the quickest way to get rid of all the pain. (more…)

If you’re a nervous type, this is going to turn into a bit of a rant. Reader discretion advised. This was my first time in a hospital for real. For all my bad habits, I’d never had a day off work, never been sick at all. Then suddenly, heart attack and bits of scaffolding holding me together. And I’m surrounded by a load of people talking at me. I know they all mean well, but most of them are really annoying, like they don’t really live in my world and understand my problems. (more…)

These are my true life confessions. Hopefully, they’ll help you get through your problems. If someone like me can make it, so can you. (more…)