FDA Requested Withdrawal of Meridia (sibutramine) from US Market

    After reviewing data from the Sibutramine Cardiovascular Outcomes Trial (SCOUT), FDA requested Abbott Laboratories to withdraw sibutramine an anti obesity drug from the U.S. market because of clinical trial data indicating an increased risk of heart attack and stroke. The drug was approved in November 1997 for weight loss and maintenance of weight loss in obese people. The trial demonstrated a 16 percent increase in the risk of serious heart events, including non-fatal heart attack, non-fatal stroke, the need to be resuscitated once the heart stopped, and death, in a group of patients given sibutramine compared with another given placebo.