Public Citizen, a nationwide consumer organization, petitioned the Food and Drug Administration to immediately ban Meridia, the popular weight-loss drug made by Abbott Laboratories, after 19 deaths were reported as possibly related to the drug.

Abbot said the deaths had not been proven to be related to Meridia and that in any case the number would represent a small percentage of the nine million people who have taken the drug worldwide since it went on the market in 1998.

The petition challenged the FDA’s approval of weight-loss drugs, suggesting that obesity is a chronic disease but the drugs approved to treat it give only small benefits over a year or two at most.

‘No drug ever approved for weight loss has been shown to benefit patients years later,’ said Dr. Sidney M. Wolfe, director of the Health Research Group at Public Citizen.

In the petition, Dr. Wolfe, noted that the FDA had reports, as of September 2001, of 397 serious adverse reactions possibly linked to Meridia. Of these 397 serious adverse reactions, 152 patients were hospitalized and 29 patients died, including 19 with cardiovascular causes of death such as heart attacks.

(via New York Times)