A diet drug which safety advocates called to be withdrawn from public use eight years ago has finally bit the dust. Under pressure from the Food and Drug Administration, the drug’s manufacturer, Abbott Laboratories, voluntarily pulled the drug from the market due to longstanding concerns that it increased the risk of heart attacks and strokes.

“There was no identifiable population of patients for whom the benefits of Meridia outweighed its risks,” said John Jenkins, MD, director of the office of new drugs at the FDA.

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