Washington, Sept 27: A researcher at Tel Aviv University’s Sackler School of Medicine has developed what could be a new weight-loss wonder drug, which not only quells the desire to consume fatty foods, but also has fewer side effects.

Dr. Nir Barak developed the drug in conjunction with the drug company Obecure.

The drug, called HistaleanTM, is based on betahistine, an approved drug used for the treatment of vertigo.

It is believed that Betahistine works by blocking H1 and H3 receptors in the brain that are linked to one’s sense of feeling full and the desire to eat fatty foods.

The pill, Histalean, also suppresses the desire to consume fatty foods, and the effects have been more prominent in women.

“Our new results suggest a strong gender-and-age-effect and support the potential of the drug as a breakthrough anti-obesity agent in women 50 years old or less,” Dr. Yaffa Beck, Obecure’s CEO said.

With the help of a recent Phase II clinical trial of the new drug in the U.S., in which 281 patients between the age group 18-65 years were studied, it was suggested that women under the age of 50 who took Histalean for 12 weeks lost 7 times the weight of those taking a placebo.

Moreover, none of the patients complained of any serious side effects.

U.S. weight-loss guru Dr. Robert Kushner who supervised the trial said: “The women who took the pill reported ‘It wasn't hard. I wasn't thinking about food. I was content.’”

The subgroup of women who were treated with a high-dose Histalean lost an average of 2.91pct of their weight whereas women in the placebo group lost only 0.4 pct.

Dr. Barak explained since the new drug has already been proved safe it will be a massive hit because all the other drugs in the diet pill market have serious side effects. (With inputs from ANI)