Steer very clear of this dangerous ‘recycled’ medication

A deadly ‘new’ diet drug you never want to take

d about a “new” drug the FDA is getting ready to approve, I honestly couldn’t believe my eyes.

Because what’s coming down the pike is so terrible — even by FDA standards — that it looked like a sick joke.

But it’s not a joke. It’s a deadly deception that’s going to be played on innocent people who are desperate to lose weight.

And the horrible risks of this drug are already so well known that a public interest group has been fighting for years to get it banned.

Here’s what you need to know about this recycled killer even before the TV ads for it start playing.

Last month I warned you about a risky new drug for type 2 diabetes. It’s one with a dangerous ‘family history’ and a very close relative named Victoza.

So what does a horrible drug aimed at diabetics have to do with a diet pill?

Well, if you’re drug maker Novo Nordisk, a lot. As in a new way to make a whole lot more money.

Novo took its deadly diabetes Rx, Victoza, and repackaged it as a weight loss drug. Its plan is to lure those who don’t even have diabetes into taking it.

And unbelievably, they’re going to double the dose!

I first sent you a warning about Victoza even before the FDA approved it back in 2010. And after it was on the market for two years Public Citizen sent a petition to the FDA asking that it be banned immediately. They said that Victoza “puts patients at higher risk of thyroid cancer, pancreatitis (and) serious allergic reactions.”

And now that same drug will be doing the same harm to those trying to lose weight — only at mega amounts.

Long before Victoza was approved by the FDA for type 2, Novo was secretly scheming to make this deadly twin out of it. The drug company recruited guinea pigs from around the world to “study” how much weight people could lose on Victoza.

So it’s no wonder the FDA denied Public Citizen’s petition. They knew a double dose of Victoza was coming to town with a new name. They couldn’t exactly ban the first one now, could they!

Novo said that it’s looking to obesity drugs, so it has more than just diabetes pills to sell. And wait till you hear this one. The drug maker told The Wall Street Journal that there are so many more fat people than diabetics, the market for them is four times the size! There are close to 100 million people it said who might be candidates for this new drug. And that’s just in the U.S.

But Novo has its eye on more than just that 100 million. Its first target will be those south of the border — in Mexico.

And I’m sure Novo wouldn’t mind at all if docs in this country started prescribing it “off label” for weight loss right away.

Hopefully this horribly dangerous drug will come with the same black box warning as Victoza does about deadly thyroid tumors. And then there’s the risk of fatal pancreatitis.

As was pointed out in a Novo-funded Victoza study, “The frequency of obesity has risen dramatically in recent years but only a few safe and effective drugs are currently available.”

And this sure isn’t one of them.

Sources:
“New weight loss formula: popular diabetes drug melts pounds, studies show” Melanie Haiken, April 30, 2014, Forbes, forbes.com