Alli

Xenical

On February 8, 2007, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced it had approved the GlaxoSmithKline drug Alli for sale in the U.S. Alli is a lower-dose, over-the-counter version of the prescription drug Xenical, which has been marketed in the U.S. since 1999.

The pill works by curbing the absorption of calorie-rich fat in the intestines.

In April 2006, Public Citizen petitioned the FDA to ban Xenical because of two studies documenting the drug’s ability to cause lesions in the colon known to be precursors of colon cancer.

In 2007, *Alli was approved for over-the-counter use, but the FDA warned consumers that there were intestinal side effects.