A DRUG that promises to help people to lose weight and stop smoking as well as to cut the risk of heart disease could be available by 2006.

The results of a two-year study, presented at a meeting of the European Society of Cardiology in Munich, showed that people taking a 20mg tablet of rimonabant once a day lost an average of 8.6kg (19lb) in weight over two years, 5kg (11lb) more than those on a placebo.

Results announced this year showed that users of the drug were twice as likely to be able to give up cigarettes without weight gain.

Nick Finer, a consultant in obesity medicine at Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge, who was involved in the study on diabetic patients, said the drug could be a major advance in the management of obesity as well as its risk factors.

He said that the rimonabant trial was exciting because of the resulting weight loss in patients and the mirroring of results from an earlier trial of people with lipid disorders, or abnormal levels of cholesterol in the blood, which increase the risk of heart disease.

“Not only will it be a very useful treatment for patients, but I think it has the potential for really changing the focus away from obesity being lifestyle to placing it where it should be — at the heart of metabolic and cardiovascular risk,” Dr Finer said.

The drug works by suppressing cravings to smoke and over-eat by acting on the body’s endocannabinoid system, a natural physiological system that regulates energy balance.

The research included 1,507 overweight or obese men and women in 60 centres across Europe and the United States. Patients taking rimonabant lost an average of 9cm (3.5in) around their waists over a year, with some 39 per cent of them losing more than 10 per cent of their initial body weight.

Insulin response improved, and HDL, or “good” cholesterol, increased by 27 per cent in those who were on the drug — more than those who were on the placebo, which implied a significant direct effect of the drug on lipid metabolism, according to a University Hospital Antwerp spokeswoman. Lipids are a group of fat-like substances stored in the body and used as fuel.

If further studies prove successful, the drug could be licensed for use in two years.

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