sibutramine (MERIDIA)

Drug and Dietary Supplement Profiles

A comprehensive review of the safety and effectiveness of this drug. If the drug is not a Do Not Use product, information on adverse effects, drug interactions and how to use the medication are included.

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sibutramine (MERIDIA)
We list this drug as a Do Not Use drug because it causes very limited weight loss and also causes high blood pressure and increased heart rate.

Disease and Drug Family Information

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Diet Drugs [hide all summaries]
The FDA has set the bar too low for the approval of diet drugs. Instead of requiring that diet drugs be proved to prevent the long term consequences of obesity (none ever has), diet drugs can be approved if they show a modest weight loss over a relatively short period.

Worst Pills, Best Pills Newsletter Articles

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Serotonin Syndrome Due to Drug Interactions [hide all summaries]
(April 2008)
The article lists more than 30 prescription drugs that can cause the serotonin syndrome.

Update on Weight Loss Drug Sibutramine (MERIDIA) [hide all summaries]
(July 2004)
A new study shows that there is no direct evidence that sibutramine reduces obesity-associated morbidity or mortality and that there is insufficient evidence to accurately determine the risk-benefit profile for sibutramine.

The Serotonin Syndrome: A Potentially Life-Threatening Adverse Drug Reaction — Fluoxetine (PROZAC), Escitalopram (LEXAPRO), Sibutramine (MERIDIA) And Other Drugs [hide all summaries]
(September 2003)
Canadian drug regulatory authorities reviewed reported cases of serotonin syndrome in the July 2003 issue of the Canadian Adverse Reaction Newsletter. The serotonin syndrome is a potentially life-threatening adverse drug reaction involving an excess of serotonin, a naturally occurring nerve transmitter.

Drug Induced Psychiatric Symptoms [hide all summaries]
(October 2002)
This is the first of a two part series on drug induced psychiatric symptoms that is based on the July 8, 2002 issue of The Medical Letter on Drugs and Therapeutics. Regular readers of Worst Pills, Best Pills News will recognize The Medical Letter as a reference source written for physicians and pharmacists that we often use because of its reputation as an objective and independent source of drug information. The article lists the drugs and their psychiatric adverse effects.

Health Research Group Urges Prosecution of Abbott Labs for Concealing Death Data on Diet Drug Sibutramine (MERIDIA) [hide all summaries]
(July 2002)
The Health Research Group wrote Department of Health and Human Services secretary Tommy Thompson on May 21, 2002, strongly urging the criminal prosecution of Abbott Laboratories for illegally withholding from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) important information concerning eight deaths and other adverse effects related to its diet drug sibutramine (MERIDIA). Two months earlier we had petitioned to have this dangerous drug withdrawn from the market (see the May 2002 issue of Worst Pills, Best Pills News).

Public Citizen's Health Research Group's Petition to Ban Diet Drug Sibutramine (MERIDIA) [hide all summaries]
(May 2002)
On March 19, 2002, Public Citizen’s Health Research Group petitioned Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) Secretary Tommy Thompson to immediately ban the dangerous diet drug sibutramine (MERIDIA). As long ago as April 1998, we listed sibutramine as a Do Not Use drug in Worst Pills, Best Pills News.

Additional Information from Public Citizen

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FDA Denial of Public Citizen’s Petition to Ban Meridia Is Misguided (HRG Publication #1748) [hide all summaries]
How many more dangerously flawed decisions will the FDA make before the Congress repeals the Prescription Drug User Fee Act, which brings the agency ever closer to – and makes the agency less vigilant over – the companies that give it almost $200 million a year in funding?

Petition supplement to FDA outlining the rising number of cardiovascular events associated with the diet drug sibutramine (MERIDIA) (HRG Publication #1675) [hide all summaries]
Since then [since the original petition] , from reviewing subsequent FDA adverse event data, we have become aware of an additional 30 cardiovascular deaths in people using Meridia, for a total of 49 cardiovascular deaths. Twenty-seven of the 49 (68%) were in people less than 50 years old.

Letter to HHS urging that criminal charges be brought against Abbott Laboratories for illegally withholding information concerning eight deaths and other adverse effects of the drug sibutramine (MERIDIA) (HRG Publication #1619) [hide all summaries]
The purpose of this letter is to strongly urge you to bring criminal charges against Abbott Laboratories for illegally withholding from the FDA important information concerning eight deaths and other adverse effects of their big-selling obesity drug, sibutramine (Meridia), a drug we asked you to ban in March of this year.

Petition to FDA to ban the diet drug sibutramine (MERIDIA) (HRG Publication #1613) [hide all summaries]
According to the FDA data base, since its launch in early 1998 sibutramine has now been associated with 29 deaths including 19 from cardiovascular adverse effects in people using this minimally effective drug.

Health Letter Articles

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Meridia — Weight Loss or Health Loss? [hide all summaries]
(October 2003)
Against the better judgment of both the physicians who reviewed the data for the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the FDA’s external Advisory Committee, the weight loss drug Meridia (sibutramine) has been on the market for over five years. Both the agency’s own doctors and its advisors are on record as saying that the benefits (loss of a few pounds in weight) do not outweigh the risks (increased blood pressure and thus increased risk for heart attack and stroke).