Will pills replace dieting plans? Photo compliments Vichie81

In an attempt to make the Sexy Beast Diet plan superfluous…

The pharmaceutical industry (read “evil pharmaceutical industry”) has yet again pitched a diet pill to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, but this time, unlike the 2010 attempt with the same pill, the FDA’s advisory committee voted 20-2 to endorse the drug.

 This isn’t the last step in the approval process, but the FDA usually takes the advice of the experts on its advisory committees. Final approval of what will be the first diet pill to clear the hurdles in more than a decade should come later in 2012.

 The drug, Qnexa, manufactured by Vivus–my spellchecker wants to make that “Virus”–is a combination of amphetamine phentermine and topiramate. You may recall that amphetamine phentermine had an infamous previous life as the active ingredient in the now-outlawed weight loss drug fen-phen.

 Topiramate is an anti-convulsion medication used to treat people with epilepsy and to control migraine headaches. Topiramate may cause osteoporosis in adults and rickets in children. The new combo pill has the risk of causing heart problems and birth defects.

 I don’t suppose authors of diet books have much to worry about, but to hedge my bets, I’m going to load up on Vivus stock.