Sooo, if craving fatty food is your problem, this new formulation* of
an old histamin1 & 2 blockers might be of help.

Arbor

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2007-09/afot-ndm092607.php
New drug makes weight loss safer
Dr. Nir Barak of TAU University has created a new diet drug with fewer
side effects

TEL AVIV - More than 60 percent of American women are overweight, with
nearly a third falling into the category of obese and at greater risk
of cancer, heart disease and diabetes. Until now, there has been no
safe, long-term medical remedy that tackles unwanted weight gain.

Dr. Nir Barak of Tel Aviv University's Sackler School of Medicine has
developed what could be a new weight-loss wonder drug. In conjunction
with the drug company Obecure, Dr. Barak developed a new formulation
called HistaleanTM, based on betahistine, an approved drug marketed
worldwide for the treatment of vertigo. Betahistine has been available
to health authorities for over 30 years.

Betahistine is believed to block receptors in the brain - the H1 and
H3 receptors - which are connected to one's sense of fullness and
desire to eat fatty foods. It has an excellent safety profile and has
been used for treatment by more than 100 million patients suffering
from vertigo and dizziness in Canada and Europe.

The repurposed pill, Histalean, has been found to quell the desire to
consume fatty foods, and the effects have been most pronounced in
women.

According to the U.S. Center for Disease Control, about 32% of adult
American women under 54 (about 25 million women) suffer from obesity.
"Our new results suggest a strong gender-and-age-effect and support
the potential of the drug as a breakthrough anti-obesity agent in
women 50 years old or less," confirmed Dr. Yaffa Beck, Obecure's CEO.

According to some estimates, obesity results in thousands of deaths a
year and accounts for $117 billion in U.S. health care expenses
annually. Clearly, a breakthrough in this area will not only make
women look and feel better, but it could save their lives as well.

A recent Phase II clinical trial of the new drug in the U.S. suggests
that women under the age of 50 who took Histalean for 12 weeks lost 7
times the weight of those taking a placebo. What's most important to
the researchers involved is that none of the 281 patients, males and
females aged 18-65, complained of any serious side effects.

The trial, completed this August, was supervised by U.S. weight-loss
guru Dr. Robert Kushner. The women who took the pill reported, "It
wasn't hard." "I wasn't thinking about food." "I was content."

Dr. Barak explains why this is good news, "All the drugs in the diet
pill market today have serious side effects. They may help a woman
lose weight, but with that weight loss comes all sorts of bad things
like depression and even suicide. Safety issues are a real concern for
the FDA. But because this new drug has already been proven safe for
other indications, we think Histalean has real blockbuster potential."

The recent results were based on a double-blind, placebo-controlled
study on people with a Body Mass Index ranging from 30 to 40. (A BMI
of 30 and above indicate obesity.) The study was conducted at 19
investigation sites across the U.S. over a 12 week treatment period.
The subgroup of high-dose Histalean-treated women lost an average of
2.91% of their weight versus placebo group which lost only 0.4 %.

Dr. Barak's drug is also expected to compete for the $28 billion
market of cholesterol-reducing drugs such as Lipitor. It could also be
used in parallel with anti-psychotic drugs, which have unwanted side
effects of extreme weight gain among mental health patients.

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