• Abbott Laboratories has withdrawn the obesity drug Sibutramine (Meridia) from the market in light of clinical trial data pointing to an increased risk for stroke and myocardial infarction, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced.
• The agency asked Abbott Laboratories to pull the drug from the market after it evaluated data from a post marketing study of the drug’s cardiovascular safety. The study, called the Sibutramine Cardiovascular Outcomes Trial (SCOUT), demonstrated a 16% increase in the risk for serious cardiovascular events such as nonfatal heart attack, nonfatal stroke, the need for resuscitation after the heart stopped, and death in a cohort of patients given Sibutramine compared with another given a placebo..
• The FDA is advising physicians to stop prescribing Sibutramine and for patients to stop taking it and talk to their healthcare provider about alternative weight-loss regimens. Dr. Jenkins also said he is not aware of any long-term consequences for patients who stop taking the drug. The cardiovascular events observed in SCOUT, he said, probably stem from Sibutramine increasing blood pressure and heart rate. These adverse effects disappear once the drug is withdrawn.

Read more at  http://www.medscape.org/viewarticle/730515?src=cmemp