Belviq Could Make Opioid Addiction Problems Worse: Study

The findings of a new study suggests that the side effects of Belviq, a recalled weight loss drug that has recently been investigated as a potential opioid addiction treatment, may actually make some health problems caused by the powerful pain medications worse, not better.

Belviq (lorcaserin) was introduced in 2012, as the first new diet pill approved in the United States in years, after a series of recalls and problems associated with other weight-loss medications introduced in prior decades. However, in February 2020, the FDA required a Belviq recall, after identifying an increased incidence of cancer among users of the medication in post-marketing study data.

While this recall effectively removed Belviq as a treatment option for weight loss, some doctors and scientists were still looking at the potential for Belviq to serve as an opioid addiction treatment drug, due to its effects on serotonin receptors. However, the findings of a study published earlier this month in The FASEB Journal, the journal for the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology, suggest Belviq may worsen certain opioid symptoms.

Researchers with the University of Texas looked at interactions between Belviq and opioids, and how they affected antinociception, the process of blocking the brain’s ability to feel and detect pain, as well as how the combination affected ventilatory depression, which is the main cause of death from opioid overdose, which results in respiratory failure. The researchers tested these effects on rhesus monkeys, who were given either morphine, fentanyl or Belviq alone, or given a combination of Belviq and morphine, Belviq and fentanyl, or all three.

According to their findings, Belviq increased the effects of ventilatory depression in both morphine and fentanyl, meaning it made the most common cause of death from opioid overdosing more likely. Additionally, it actually had only a small effect on blocking pain.

“Taken together, these data indicate that lorcaserin [Belviq] does not improve an important therapeutic effect of opioids (pain relief) and might enhance adverse effects,” the researchers concluded.

Belviq Cancer Concerns

Since recalling the weight loss drug, Eisai, Inc. and Arena Pharmaceuticals have faced a growing number of Belviq lawsuits filed in courts nationwide, each raising similar allegations that that manufacturers knew for years that Belviq increased the risk of cancer, but failed to warn patients or the medical community.

After an FDA advisory panel decided to approve the medication in April 2012, the consumer watchdog group Public Citizen warned there would be problems with Belviq, predicting the diet drug would eventually be removed from the market like a number of other previously-approved weight-loss treatments.

In July 2019, an expert analysis of the CAMEILLIA-TIMI 61 Trial was published by the American College of Cardiology. The study looked at the effectiveness and side effects of Belviq, including the largest concern at the time: cardiovascular risks.

While not publicly announced until months later, the data contained concerning indications about a potential link between Belviq and pancreatic cancer, colorectal cancer and lung cancer. However, the FDA did not issue Belviq cancer warnings until January 2020, and several weeks later it was determined the weight loss drug needed to be removed from the market.