Orlistat is a safe and often used lipase inhibitor used for obesity management that acts by preventing the absorption of fats from the human diet, thereby reducing caloric intake, and is the most studied weight loss medicine in the world, with more than 100 clinical studies, involving more than 30,000 patients. It is used in the treatment of Obesity including management of weight loss and weight maintenance. Orlistat also modestly reduces
blood pressure, and its clinical uses are expanding into supportive treatments for type 2 diabetes, cardio-vascular diseases, some cancers and in the treatment of Tuberculosis. The market for Orlistat is estimated to be around US $500 million per year.
Obesity is one of the leading causes of preventable death, and is rising rapidly worldwide. The World Health Organization (WHO) has described the problem of obesity as a “worldwide epidemic”. WHO’s latest projections indicate that globally in 2005, approximately 1.6 billion adults (age 15+) were overweight; and WHO further projects that by 2015, approximately 2.3 billion adults will be overweight.
