Study finds lorcaserin offers sustained weight loss without higher rate of cardiovascular events

A weight loss drug, lorcaserin — currently available in the US, has been found to offer sustained weight loss in patients without a higher rate of cardiovascular events when compared with placebo in a recently published study.

The study, published in the New England Journal of Medicine assessed 12,000 patients who were classed as overweight or obese and who also suffered with atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease or multiple cardiovascular risk factors.

All patients were randomly assigned to either receive lorcaserin (10 mg twice daily) or a placebo.

After 12 months, nearly 40% of patients administered with lorcaserin (1986 of 5135) had weight loss of at least five percent. In the placebo group the number of patients experiencing this level of weight loss was under 20% (883 of 5083).

Additionally, the lorcaserin group fared better in terms of cardiac risk factors — after a little over three years, the rate of primary safety outcome was two percent in the treated group per year and was found to be 0.1% higher in the placebo group.

“I think it is the thing everybody has been looking for,” said Tam Fry of Britain’s National Obesity Forum, when discussing the study with The Guardian. “I think there will be several holy grails, but this is a holy grail and one which has been certainly at the back of the mind of a lot of specialists for a long time. But all of the other things apply — lifestyle change has got to be root and branch part of this.”

The drug does not yet have a European licence and would need to be approved by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE). In the US, it is sold under the name Belviq and as stated on the BBC’s website, taken twice daily, costs about $220–290 (£155–225) per month.