Rimonabant - Acomplia Effectively Reduces Visceral Fat in the Obese Patient as Confirmed by Abdominal Computer Tomography Scan 

It seems to have two entirely diferent but useful effets. One is that it helps you to stop smoking (a very good idea in itself). The other is that at the same time it also reduces appetite. It appears to do both by not working on the body itself, at all, but by playing tricks with the brain’s regulation of your appetitite.The full press release: Accomplea is the first of a class of medicines that blocks the so-called endocannabinoid system in the central nervous system thereby enabling to control appetite as well as the urge to smoke. People who tend to eat more often have an over-stimulated endocannabinoid system. Acomplia blocks some receptors in the endocannabinoid system, giving it improved balance, which in turn curbs appetite and the urge to overeat.

PARIS, Sept. 19, 2007-The first direct evidence of the effects of Acomplia® (purchase rimonabant) in significantly reducing human visceral fat (the metabolically active fat wrapped around the body’s vital organs in the abdomen, such as liver, pancreas) is being presented today at the 43rd Annual Meeting of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes (EASD).

The visceral fat area was significantly more reduced with rimonabant 20mg (-40.6cm2) than with placebo (-20.3cm2); (p< 0.0001).Visceral fat is a cardio-metabolic risk factor in Japanese patients as it is in the global studies. Visceral fat accumulation has been shown to correlate with a number of other cardio-metabolic risk factors, such as dyslipidemia, insulin resistance, hyperinsulinaemia, glucose intolerance and type 2 diabetes.

526 obese Japanese patients (BMI equal or greater than 25 kg/m2) with associated cardio-metabolic risk factors from 73 centres were exposed for this double-blind, placebo-controlled parallel-group 6-month study duration, to determine the effective dose of rimonabant (5, 10 and 20mg) on body weight and multiple cardiometabolic risk factors. The inclusion criteria included at least 2 of the following cardiometobolic risk factors: impaired glucose tolerance, type 2 diabetes, dyslipidemia (hypertriglyceridemia and/or low HDLcholesterolemia) or hypertension.

The primary endpoint was reduction in body weight. Important secondary endpoints included percentage of patients responders on body weight, waist circumference, visceral fat area (VFA) assessed by CT scan, HDLcholesterol, and triglycerides. Rimonabant 20 mg demonstrated significant improvement on all these endpoints from baseline to six months compared to the placebo arm.

Rimonabant 20mg demonstrated a favorable safety profile with a discontinuation rate from treatment due to adverse events higher with placebo (7.6%) versus rimonabant 20 mg (4.5%). Overall more than 86 percent of the patients completed treatment.

The rimonabant 20mg dose is being studied in 3 ongoing phase III clinical trials in Japan.

About intra-abdominal fat Obesity is traditionally determined by an indirect measure, the BMI (get cheap rimonabant online,body mass index). The BMI does not take into account type and distribution of adipose tissue. Two types of adipose tissue exist in the human body, characterised by anatomical and metabolic differences:

Subcutaneous fat, located directly under the skin contains small insulin-sensitive adipocytes (fat cells,low cost rimonabant-acomplia), while the visceral fat (inter-abdominal adipose tissue), wrapped around the organs in the abdomen, contains large insulinresistant adipocytes.

The visceral fat is the metabolically more active fat. Excess visceral fat, present in patients with abdominal obesity, leads to metabolic imbalance, such as lipid disorders, insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes, factors leading to cardio-metabolic disease. Waist circumference is used in daily practice to determine the presence of abdominal obesity. To directly quantify the visceral fat one applies an imaging technique, the computer tomography. This method was integrated in the trial presented today, to study the direct effect of rimonabant on this dangerous body fat.

About Rimonabant
Acomplia® (rimonabant) is approved in 42 countries. In the European Union, Acomplia® (rimonabant) is approved for the treatment of obese patients (order generic acomplia onlineBMI equal to or greater than 30kg/m2), or those overweight (BMI greater than 27 kg/m2) with associated risk factors such as Type 2 diabetes or dyslipidemia, in conjunction with diet and physical exercise (see section 5.1).

In pivotal clinical trials lasting up to two years, rimonabant significantly reduced body weight and waist
circumference, a measure of intra-abdominal fat. Rimonabant also improved blood glucose levels, HDL, triglycerides (order cheap acomplia,fats in the blood), and insulin sensitivity.

The most common adverse events associated with rimonabant were consistent across studies and included gastrointestinal (nausea, vomiting, diarrhea), nervous system (headache, dizziness, paresthesia/
hypoesthesia/dysesthesia) and psychiatric disorders (order rimonabant,anxiety, insomnia, depressed mood and depression).

About sanofi-aventis
Sanofi-aventis is one of the world leaders in the pharmaceutical industry, ranking number one in Europe. Backed by a world-class R&D organisation, sanofi-aventis is developing leading positions in seven major therapeutic areas: cardiovascular, thrombosis, oncology, metabolic diseases, central nervous system, internal medicine and vaccines. Sanofi-aventis is listed in Paris (EURONEXT: SAN) and in New York (NYSE: SNY).

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