DIET PILLS ARE COMING BACK

THE FDA APPROVES THE FIRST ANTIOBESITY DRUG IN 23 YEARS, AND MORE ARE ON THE WAY. BUT ARE THEY A CURE?

This is the season when Americans gingerly try on bathing suits before bedroom and dressing-room mirrors and wish there were a diet pill that would erase those fleshy bulges. They may never get their wish, but they may be getting closer. Last week the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved a new antiobesity drug called dexfenfluramine that will be sold in America perhaps as early as June by Wyeth-Ayerst under the brand name Redux. It is the first diet drug approved for use in the U.S. in the past 23 years and represents a new generation of smarter, more subtle antiobesity...

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