mainly nausea, which affected one in eight patients. The earlier study had also shown a drop-out rate due to side effects of about 15 percent. In all, 39.4 percent of patients on the top dose of Acomplia discontinued treatment, but this rate was similar to that for individuals given either the lower dose or a placebo. Van Gaal said a high drop-out rate was common in trials of obesity drugs and he was confident Acomplia had an acceptable safety profile. "I think Acomplia has a very acceptable side-effect profile ... We can show rather good patient tolerance and tolerability," he told Reuters in an interview, adding that the nausea and occasional dizziness experienced were mainly transient and mild. "Patients often drop out of obesity trials because they hope for a miracle approach -- and no drug is going to do that." Acomplia's novel mode of action targets the same biological "switch" in the brain that makes people hungry when they smoke cannabis. The drug binds to and blocks a so-called cannabinoid receptor protein found on the surface of brain cells. This centralized mode of action has led to concerns there might be long-term adverse effects from taking Acomplia but Van Gaal said there was no evidence of this. Health care officials in North America and Europe have recently expressed increased determination to tackle a growing obesity epidemic, which could help Acomplia's path to market. Van Gaal said doctors had to accept that lifestyle changes alone -- such as dieting and exercise -- had produced disappointing results and the time was right to try pharmacological intervention. At present, only 2 percent of the total budget of weight management programmes is spent on drugs, he said, with existing products such as Roche's Xenical and Abbott Laboratories's Meridia not selling well, due to side effect issues.
