A $5 Million study on severe Obesity treatments
BlueCross BlueShield of Western New York and the University at Buffalo School of Public Health and Health Professions today announced a five-year research and treatment program for the severely obese that will study the effects of weight-loss alternatives to gastric bypass surgery. Although 150,000 overweight or obese people have used the diet pill since then, until now manufacturer Roche has been prevented from identifying its brand name in advertising. But a decision by the government’s drugs and poisons committee now means Xenical can be marketed directly to consumers.
The $5 million program is a landmark effort to stem the public-health obesity crisis. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the annual cost of obesity in the United States is $117 billion including health-care expenses and lost productivity. An estimated $4.5 billion was spent on gastric bypass surgery in 2005 alone, a 1,000 percent increase over 1995.
Obesity is a dreaded disease which is normally treated with diet pills and weight loss surgeries.
