Efforts to define obesity
as a disease coincided with the development of Redux, the first prescription weightloss drug in 20 years.
Deaths from obesity drugs
In the 1990s, millions of prescriptions were written for "phen-fen" and Redux. They were linked to heart-valve damage and a deadly lung disease in tens of thousands of patients.
The U.S. Food and Drug
Administration determined that these drugs were the primary cause of death in
402 cases reported to the agency by the manufacturers between 1998 and 2002. Some deaths occurred before 1998, but were reported later. |
Chronology of development and sales |
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