I am always impressed by a well-rounded acronym. It shows the research team is delighted by both science and language. In this case, we have the cumbersome An International Study of Rimonabant in Dyslipidemia with Atherogenic Risk in Abdominally Obese Patients distilled into the more convenient ADAGIO-LIPIDS. It is a shame that the team felt they had to cheat — I suppose AISRIDARAOP is not quite so catchy. Perhaps it works better in French. Two new reports based on the clinical trial of acomplia (generic name rimonabant) were presented on the 29th April in Istanbul at the 77th European Atherosclerosis Society Congress. (more…)

History is a strange beast. You can only see it when you turn and look back. The closer it is to you, the less easy it is to see. The difficulty with writing about acomplia is that you must always start somewhere. Wherever you pick in time, the real question is how far back to look. What have we taken for granted? What gaps have we left? So in this article, we catch up with the past. Just to make sure that we have everyone on the same virtual page. (more…)

At the meeting of the American College of Cardiology held in Chicago this March, Merck & Co released some clinical data from the Phase III trials for their proposed competitor to acomplia (rimonabant). This new medication, still going by its generic name of taranabant, targets the same cannabinoid system as acomplia. It is therefore interesting to compare results since, if it gains regulatory approval, it will be a direct competitor to acomplia. (more…)

  Science is one of those endlessly fascinating games that people play with ideas. The method could not be easier to state. You propose a hypothesis and design an experiment to collect evidence to test whether your hypothesis is true (I always pay particular attention when anyone starts talking about truth — if ever there was a flexible friend, truth would be it). So, now your results are in. You claim definitive evidence that “proves” what you speculated was either true or not true. Now it is up to the rest of the world to see whether it can replicate your findings. The more independent people who can reproduce the same results, the more likely it is that your hypothesis is true or not true. (more…)