FDA rejects Public Citizen's demand to pull Meridia

Public Citizen has lost a three-year battle to persuade the FDA to remove Abbott Laboratories' weight-loss drug Meridia from the market. Regulators said that the drug's benefits continue to outweigh the risks of taking it. Public Citizen maintained that Meridia was linked to more than 400 adverse reactions and contributed to the deaths of dozens of patients. "This decision is good news for obese patients and their physicians who are considering pharmacotherapy who may have been alarmed by Public Citizen," said Dr. John Leonard, Abbott's vice president of global medical affairs.

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