WEIGHT LOSS

FDA Approves New Diet Drug

Furthering effort to combat obesity.

The FDA has approved a new diet drug—it’s first in more than a decade. The medicine is called Qysmia, and the agency hopes it will help combat growing obesity rates. The advisory panel voted 20-2 to approve the drug, arguing that its benefits outweigh the potential side effects, as it provides another option for losing weight beyond diet, exercise, and surgery. “I think it’s clear from current research that there are problems with weight-regulating mechanisms in the brain that make it difficult for people to lose and maintain weight,” said the director of the New York Presbyterian Hospital’s Comprehensive Weight Loss Program. “We need to come to that realization that we’re better off treating people who are obese than blaming them.”