Rimonabant can lower heart disease risk factors

NEW YORK, Thursday (Reuters)

Rimonabant, know by the trade name Acomplia, results in weight loss and improves the risk profile in obese patients with high cholesterol who are at increased risk of cardiovascular disease, new study findings show.

Reuters Health has previously reported that rimonabant is effective in reducing weight. The current study, supported by Sanofi-Aventis and published in The New England Journal of Medicine, included overweight or obese patients at high risk for cardiovascular disease.

Dr. Jean-Pierre Despres, from Laval University in Ste.-Foy, Quebec, Canada, and his associates randomly assigned 340 subjects to rimonabant 5 mg, 344 to rimonabant 20 mg, and 334 to placebo. All of the patients were instructed to maintain a low-calorie diet.

At the end of 12 months, those in the placebo group lost an average of 2.3 kilograms (kg), compared with a weight loss of 4.2 kg in the lower-dose rimonabant group and 8.6 kg in the higher-dose rimonabant group.

Weight loss occurred during the first months and then stabilized without regain throughout the rest of the study period. Reductions in waist circumference followed a similar pattern.

Triglycerides fell by 15.8 percent among those taking the higher dose of rimonabant, while remaining steady in the other two groups. HDL cholesterol, the “good” cholesterol, increased by 12.2 percent in the placebo group, 15.6 percent in the lower-dose rimonabant group and 23.4 percent in the higher-dose rimonabant group.

The prevalence of the metabolic syndrome fell to 41.0 percent, 40.0 percent and 25.8 percent, respectively, from an overall prevalence of 54 percent at the start of the study. The metabolic syndrome is a cluster of conditions such as high blood pressure and high blood sugar levels that raise the risk of heart disease and diabetes.

The higher dose of rimonabant also resulted in lower blood sugar levels and lower C-reactive protein levels, high levels of which are associated with diabetes and heart disease, respectively.

The drug also resulted in lower blood pressure and higher levels of adiponectin.