Report Criticizes FDA Approval Of Potentially Harmful Diet Medications.

“Watchdog Reports” reports, based on an investigative project, that the FDA has approved five diet medications during the past three years, “including two in the last four months,” despite the possibility of “serious side effects – including suicidal thinking, increased heart rate and cancer risk.” Critics of the diet medicines “worry the new products will repeat the diet-drug mistakes of the past, which have led to decades of injuries, deaths and, in the end, products forced off the market.” The medications include Belviq (lorcaserin), Qsymia (phentermine/topiramate), Contrave (bupropion/naltrexone), Saxenda (liraglutide injection) and Vyvanse (amphetamine). FDA Unable To Regulate Potentially Dangerous Diet Pill Additive DNP. CBS News (4/23, Firger) reports on its website that DNP, or dinitrophenol, an ingredient included in some diet pills, has been “linked to at least 62 deaths over several decades,” including one recently in the UK. Dr. David Gortler, a former FDA Medical Officer, “told CBS News it is possible that a similar incident could occur in the US,” due to the fact that the agency “does not have the authority to regulate dietary supplements from other countries that come through the mail.” http://www.jsonline.com/watchdog/watchdogreports/after-13-years-of-wariness-fda-approves-five-potentially-harmful-new-diet-drugs-b99testz1-300956041.html