Posts Tagged ‘ Diet Plan ’

Hot Potato Diet Drug Alli Up for Grabs, but Who’s Buying?

April 29th, 2011. By AbiK

On the heels of consumer watchdog group, Public Citizen, calling for a ban of diet drug Alli, we see that GlaxoSmithKline (GSK)—makers of well-known type 2 and last-resort diabetes drug, Avandia—has chosen to offload the once golden weight loss wonder.

Alli Sales Drop

Apparently, Alli is not so golden anymore. GSK just reported on their first quarter earnings for 2011, and Alli sales were not exactly stellar. Case in point, Alli sales in Europe were down £14 million in first quarter 2011 vs prior year. And in the US? That’s a bit more ambiguous, though GSK does report “The USA grew 1% to £241 million, with strong performances from Sensodyne, Tums, Poligrip, Biotene, and Breathe offsetting lower sales of alli and Aquafresh.” Translation: Alli pooped in the US (no pun intended, see below).

Ok, financials are one thing—but there’s more to the Alli story than declining sales. And it begs the question, why would Sanofi-Aventis—if rumors are true—be considering buying Alli from GSK?

Alli Safety Record

Let’s recall that Alli was only approved for sale in 2007. That’s not all that long ago. Then by April, 2009 Alli was the subject of conversation with the CDER Drug Safety Oversight Board—over concerns of an Alli link to possible severe liver injury.

In August, 2009 the FDA sent out its Early Communication to alert consumers that Alli was indeed under review for severe liver injury risk.

By May, 2010 the FDA announced a revised label for Alli (and Xenical) that would include a warning about “rare reports of sever liver injury”.

Fast forward to Public Citizen’s call for a ban on Alli this month—which draws attention to some digging consumer watchdog group did over at the FDA’s AERS database that found Alli to “have been associated with 47 cases of acute pancreatitis and 73 cases of kidney stones”.

And Those Other Alli Side Effects…

In addition to being linked to serious liver injury, Alli is not exactly a dieter’s dream. We covered Alli’s rather gross side effects in an earlier story—and since then it’s not hard to find Alli users online who apparently have no shame in sharing stories of “oily orange stuff” dripping down their legs. GSK themselves recommended wearing dark clothes or carry additional clothes in case of an accident.

Seriously—possible Alli side effects reportedly include fatty or oily stools, oily spotting, intestinal gas with discharge, an increased number of bowel movements, or poor bowel control.

So given Alli’s recent sales decline, the potential for more serious adverse events to occur while taking Alli, the outcry for a ban on Alli—and the fact that it’s really not a pleasant way to lose weight—why would anyone want to buy the Alli brand?

Well, regardless of whether it’s Sanofi-Aventis or someone else, I hope their business plans include cross-promotion with Depends and Subtle Butt…

Tags: Alli, diet pills, Diet Plan, FDA, GlaxoSmithKline, GSK, orlistat-side-effects-orlistate-liver-damage-alli, Public Citizen, Sanofi Aventis, weight loss
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