As reported at NPR:

 

By Scott Hensley

The Food and Drug Administration is taking a look at the safety of Meridia, a weight-loss pill, in the wake of information from a clinical study that suggests there may be a risk of cardiovascular problems for some people taking the medicine.The agency says it's just starting to look at data that came in earlier this month from a study called SCOUT, started in 2002. The study enrolled 10,000 overweight people with significant cardiovascular risks, such as diabetes, and compared how they did on the drug with others who took a sugar pill.

The FDA says preliminary data show reports of cardiovascular events, including heart attacks and strokes, in 11.4 percent of patients taking Meridia compared with 10 percent of those taking a placebo.

Though that difference appears small, it's higher than expected and suggests there may be a problem. In an advisory, FDA cautioned it's "making no conclusion about the preliminary findings at this time."

A spokesman for Abbott Laboratories, maker of Meridia, told Dow Jones, the drug isn't recommended for more than 90% of the kinds of patients in the SCOUT study. So the company doesn't think the data should lead to any changes for the drug, approved by FDA 12 years ago.