Axokine is the name of a diet drug that is in clinical trials and could be on the market within three years if approved by the FDA. It is an appetite suppressant that works by inhibiting processes in the brain to make you feel full. There are several other diet drugs that have a similar aim, such as sibutrimine. The drug was originally in development as a treatment for ALS or Lou Gehrig's Disease, but they found it caused loss of appetite in clinical test subjects.
The popular media has taken the early trials of Axokine and declared it a potential miracle. Regeneron, the company producing it, is being compared prematurely to giant, successful pharmaceutical companies like Merck and Lily. The problem with these kind of promises is that they have come and gone for as long as the diet industry has existed. Remember Fen-Phen, Xenical, the "natural" miracle ephedra, phenylpropanolamine (once in acutrim and dexatrim) and a list of others.
The report I saw on Fox Television had one of the developers already admitting side-effects. This is a bad sign three years away from the market. The reason diet drugs and pills do not work in the long-term is side-effects which make taking them indefinitely, unreasonable. They stated that the drug has been shown in the early trials to be effective after doses are stopped. That flies in the face of virtually everything known to be true in the world of drugs. That brings up a number of curious questions?
It was stated that with an accompanying healthy diet and exercise program that Axokine led to an extra weight loss of 1 pound per week in their trials. That clearly does not make it a "miracle" drug. 1 pound per week at a considerable expense with questionable long-term side-effects and three years away from the market? Instead of pinning your hopes on such uncertainty, it is best to be honest with yourself and follow the sensible, inexpensive strategies that are guaranteed to work: healthy eating and exercise. There are a number of commercial plans that have such a focus.
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