Medical News: Psychiatric Side Effects Cloud Another Promising Obesity Drug - in Primary Care, Weight Management from MedPage Today: "Mechanism-of-action studies suggested that engagement of the cannabinoid-1 receptor inverse agonist by taranabant leads to weight loss by reducing food intake and increasing energy expenditure and fat oxidation.
Taranabant targets the cannabinoid-1 receptor, as does rimonabant (Zimulti, Acomplia), developed by sanofi-aventis. The latter's application to the FDA for approval has been held up because of clinical reports of severe depression and suicidal ideation among some users. Rimonabant is available in some 40 other markets, including the European Union.
A Merck executive told stock analysts last month that psychiatric adverse effects had been seen in taranabant-treated patients, but details had not been disclosed until today's journal publication.
A Merck spokesperson said it now appears that psychiatric effects are intrinsic to drugs targeting the cannabinoid-1 receptor." ...emphasis mine (duH!),
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