CRESCENDO, Rimonabant's "Obituary," Published in Lancet

August 13, 2010 (La Jolla, California) — The drug was hailed as a breakthrough for the treatment of obesity, as well as for the improvement of other cardiovascular risk factors, but in the end the psychiatric side effects with rimonabant (Sanofi-Aventis) were its undoing. In a paper published in the August 14, 2010 issue of the Lancet [1], investigators report truncated results from rimonabant's large morbidity and mortality study, a report that editorialists' call "the obituary for a wonder drug. [2]"

After just 14 months of follow-up for a trial initially designed to go at least 33 months, researchers, led by Dr Eric Topol (Scripps Clinic, La Jolla, CA), presented findings from the Comprehensive Rimonabant Evaluation Study of Cardiovascular Endpoints and Outcomes (CRESCENDO) study. After one year of treatment with rimonabant, there was no significant difference in the primary end point of cardiovascular death, MI, or stroke compared with placebo. There were, however, four suicides in the rimonabant arm, while one patient taking the placebo committed suicide.

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