Bye-Bye, Meridia: Risky Diet Pill Yanked from Market

(CBS/AP) Say good-bye to Meridia.

The diet drug is being pulled from the market in the U.S. and Canada, almost a year after studies showed the drug increases the risk of heart attack and stroke in patients with a history of heart disease.

The withdrawal of Meridia leaves just two prescription weight loss drugs on the market: orlistat and phentermine. Neither drug is considered very effective.

FDA scientists said they asked Meridia's maker, Abbot Labs, to withdraw the drug because its risks were not justified compared with "the very modest weight loss that people achieve on this drug." On average, patients lost about five pounds with the drug.

"Physicians are advised to stop prescribing Meridia to their patients and patients should stop taking this medication," Dr. John Jenkins, the FDA's director for new drugs, said in a statement.

Meridia is not widely used in the U.S., with a steep decline in prescriptions in recent years. About 100,000 patients use the drug in the U.S., according to the FDA. Eighty percent of users are middle-aged women.

Weight loss drugs have long been plagued by negative side effects - particularly heart problems. In the same year Meridia was approved, Wyeth's diet drug combination, fen-phen, was pulled off the market because of links to heart-valve damage and lung problems. In 2004, the FDA banned the weight loss supplement ephedra because of heart attack risks.

Meridia's withdrawal comes as the FDA reviews a new wave of weight loss drugs from several small drugmakers, but none have fared well before the FDA's expert panels. Last month FDA experts voted against lorcaserin, a drug from Arena Pharmaceuticals, because of malignant tumors seen in animal studies. Earlier in the year, the same panel recommended against approval for Vivus Inc.'s Qnexa, after studies showed signs of heart palpitation and suicidal thoughts.

Meridia was originally approved in 1997 against the majority opinion of FDA's panelists, who noted that increases in blood pressure were seen with the drug.