Australian experts who attended the public meeting titled ‘Obesity – Are Drugs the Answer’ in Sydney this weekend, expressed the opinion that though obesity drugs can help combat he obesity problem, they should only be used as the last resort, after all the other weight-loss strategies have failed to bring the desired results.

Noting that obesity drugs have been in use for over three decades, Professor Margaret Morris, a pharmacologist from the University of NSW, said that Australia has overtaken the US in terms of percentage of overweight or obese people in the total population.

Speaking at the Sydney meeting, Morris also said that drugs to treat obesity are “not right for everybody, they can help some people, they need to be applied very judiciously and be carefully followed up, but for some people if can help make a difference.”

Another expert, professor Ian Caterson, of University of Sydney’s Human Nutrition Unit and Institute of Obesity, Nutrition and Exercise (IONE), said that while drugs can play a role in tackling weight problems, they should only be used after every other alternative has failed to work for people who are extremely obese or people who want to maintain their post-obesity weight loss.

Substantiating the experts’ opinion is the information forwarded by drug manufacturers and Australia's Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA), which reveals that weight-loss drugs can lead to high blood pressure, anxiety, headaches, insomnia, nausea, and impotence.