Acomplia Report to Have News March 8th on Rimonabant and Abdominal Obesity

Acomplia Report (http://www.AcompliaReport.com) editors will provide on-scene coverage of the latest news about the obesity drug Acomplia (rimonabant) when it is presented at the American College of Cardiology meeting in Orlando on March 8th.

Optimism grew this weekend that after a four-month dry spell, more good news is on the way from the Acomplia (rimonabant) clinical trials.

While researchers are not scheduled to present new data from the RIO-Europe clinical trial at the American College of Cardiology scientific meeting in Orlando until Tuesday, March 8th, Sanofi Aventis has scheduled a "Medical Education Seminar" for Monday evening March 7th that seems to herald more encouraging results.

The Monday evening session is titled "Intra-Abdominal Adiposity and Cardiovascular Disease: A Novel Approach to Managing Multiple CV Risk Factors" and it is expected to focus on the role of Acomplia in reducing the abdominal fat that accumulates around the waist, which is widely viewed as a key indicator of cardiovascular risk.

News from the Monday evening session on Acomplia will be posted Monday night on the Acomplia Report (http://www.AcompliaReport.com).

The presentation of the first two-year results from the RIO-Europe study will take place at a special session devoted to late-breaking clinical trial news, and news also will be posted within minutes on the Acomplia Report (http://www.AcompliaReport.com).

Full coverage of expected news conferences related to the Acomplia (rimonabant) trials will also be posted on the Rimonabant Report (http://www.RimonabantReport.com).

First-year results from the RIO-Europe study fueled excitement over the potential of this new type of obesity drug when they were presented last August at the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) 2004 Congress.

The enthusiasm over this drug then surged in November, when two-year findings from the RIO-North America trial showed that Acomplia helped obese and overweight people lose significantly more weight — and keep the weight off — than a placebo.

With Sanofi reported still planning to file for initial regulatory approvals to sell Acomplia in the second quarter of this year, obesity experts are eagerly awaiting two-year results from the RIO-Europe trial for two reasons:

* To see if the RIO-Europe trial continues to support the highly encouraging two-year findings from the RIO-North America trial.

* To see if the RIO-Europe trial supports Sanofi's contention that side-effects from prolonged use of Acomplia do not appear to be a major issue.

Sanofi officials also seem certain to be questioned at the Orlando meeting about long-term data from its STRATUS trials, in which Acomplia is being evaluated for use in helping smokers break the habit.

The Acomplia Report (http://www.AcompliaReport.com) and the Rimonabant Report (http://www.RimonabantReport.com) are both published by Medical Week (http://www.MedicalWeek.org), which also publishes Obesity Week (http://www.ObesityWeek.org).