Pill Pops Food, Cigarette Cravings

Credit: Bill Branson/National Cancer Institute Butt stop: A new pill that blocks the brain receptors that marijuana targets could halt many unhealthy urges

A single pill has been found to stop both food and cigarette cravings enough to help people quit smoking and lose weight, and could also help curb other unhealthy urges.

Called rimonabant, the drug in one study helped people who were overweight drop an average of 20 pounds and in another doubled the chances that smokers would quit.

"Since these two studies show that rimonabant treats obesity and related metabolic disorders in overweight/obese patients, and also helps people to quit smoking without significant post-cessation weight gain, we may have a very promising new approach for managing two major and preventable risk factors for cardiovascular disease with one and the same drug," says Robert Anthenelli, one of the study's authors, of the University of Cincinnati in Ohio.

Cannabis receptor

Rimonabant represents a new class of drugs called selective CB1 blockers.

The drugs inhibit the activity of a receptor called CB1 that is part of what's known as the endocannabinoid system, the circuitry that marijuana stimulates to give users the munchies.

The CB1 receptor has been found in the brain, fat cells and other parts of the body, and has been associated with regulating food intake and with tobacco dependency.

Researchers think that overeating and chronic tobacco use stimulates the circuitry and in turn increases urges to smoke and eat.

By inhibiting the CB1 receptor, rimonabant appears to block signals that cause such urges.

Many benefits

The study of rimonabant's weight-loss benefits was led by Jean-Pierre Despres of Laval University in Quebec City, Quebec.

Despres and colleagues put 1,036 overweight volunteers on a restricted diet and gave them either rimonabant or a placebo.

After one year, those taking the higher of two doses of rimonabant lost an average of three inches from their waistlines and almost half lost 10% of their body weight, while the placebo group lost on average just five pounds.

The drug also cut levels of bad cholesterol and increased levels of good cholesterol.

People taking the drug said that they felt less hungry.

The smoking study involved 787 people who wanted to quit but had previously failed to do so. On average, participants were 42 years of age, smoked 23 cigarettes a day and had smoked for 11 to 24 years.

Twenty-eight percent of smokers who took rimonabant quit for at least a month while just 16% of those taking placebos quit for that long.

Additionally, while smokers who quit often gain weight, quitters who took rimonabant gained little or no weight and one third actually lost weight.

Near market

Rimonabant is made by French firm Sanofi-Synthelabo and the company says it could be available as early as next year.

Studies are also examining the drug's benefits for reducing other unhealthy urges, including a US clinical trial for alcohol consumption that is currently recruiting participants.

The smoking cessation and weight controls studies were presented in New Orleans, Louisiana at the annual scientific sessions of the American College of Cardiology.