A recent study into a new anti-obesity therapy called Qnexa has found it to be twice as effective as current over the counter diet pills. The treatment, which combines the drugs phentermine and topiramatehas, has the added health benefits of reducing cholesterol and improving blood pressure. Scientists at the Duke University Medical Centre in Durham, North Carolina, led by Dr Kishore Gadde, tested the combination drug on almost 2,500 overweight and obese adults from 93 US centres over a 56 week period with patients receiving different doses of the drugs or a placebo “dummy”. The results of the study showed the combination drug achieves about 19lb of weight loss ­relative to placebo at one year. It concluded that “Patients receiving this combination experienced 8.6 per cent greater weight loss, on average, compared to those patients receiving placebo. This kind of weight loss, coupled with significant reductions in cardiometabolic risk factors represents a potentially important advancement in the management of obesity." It is believed that the drug mainly works by reducing hunger and increasing satiety, but may have an independent effect on glucose control. The study found that the drug reduced levels of harmful fatty molecules and sugar in the blood that would also bring other potential benefits to diabetes sufferers.