Do the health authorities have such a short memory to allow the return to the market of appetite suppressants? These drugs which marked the memories in the years 1980-90 for their disastrous effects on health, in particular the sadly famous Isomeride of the Servier laboratories, are however again available in the United States. Finally a molecule, authorized by the FDA, since last month.
Release reports this morning the story of the New York Times on the epic of this drug, marketed by the Shire laboratory under the name of Vyvanse. It is that the manufacturer has taken care of the communication around its product, and has found itself an ambassador of choice.
It is indeed Monica Seles, the star tennis player of the 1990s, who makes the rounds of American talk shows to tell how the miracle pill from Shire saved her life.
It’s in tears, tell Release, that the former sportswoman has repeatedly told of her setbacks in front of the camera; she is ashamed, but yes, she admits it: Monica Seles suffered from binge-eating disorder or BED. An “excess gluttony disorder”, also translated into French as compulsive hyperphagia.
The American term refers to binge drinking, a mode of alcohol consumption very popular among the youngest, which aims to drink as much as possible very quickly, to reach drunkenness in record time. For the BED, it is of course a question of swallowing large quantities of food.
This eating disorder, which differs from bulimia, made its official appearance last year in the DSM-5, the fifth version of the much maligned diagnostic manual for mental disorders. Its detractors denounce in particular a desire to “psychiatrize all human behavior”, remember Release.
The daily notes that it was precisely at this time that Shire would have asked to extend the indications of its molecule to the treatment of BED. Which could bring in between 200 and 300 million dollars a year, according to laboratory estimates.
The management of eating disorders still has a long way to go, and many people are suffering today. A huge market of potential buyers willing to take risks to get out of the vicious circle of overeating. But if the short-term benefits can be attractive, the long-term price to pay is beyond doubt.
“We do not hide the potential risks, specifies the company. And that’s why we insist on the importance of a prescription well within the standards”, declared in the columns of New York Times the manufacturer of Vyvanse. It is this same laboratory, recalls Releasewho, in 2011, tried to sell pills to prevent car accidents, divorces, and unemployment…
First published on: March 03, 2015
