The Japanese drug maker Eisai on Thursday said it would withdraw the weight-loss drug Belviq from the U.S. market after the Food and Drug Administration expressed concerns about an increased occurrence of cancer reported in people who used the product.
The agency recommended that people using Belviq to lose weight should stop taking the medicine immediately, although the FDA is not recommending special cancer screening for people who have used the drug.
“We are taking this action because we believe that the risks of lorcaserin outweigh its benefits based on our completed review of results from a randomized clinical trial assessing safety,” the FDA statement said. Lorcaserin is the scientific name for Belviq.
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