Can I take Meridia with Xenical?
Yes. Xenical is a drug that blocks fat absorption in the intestine, and has no systemic effects. Therefore, you will not have an adverse reaction taking these two medications together. However, studies to date have not shown that taking both drugs produces more weight loss. Women who lost weight in a year long double-blind placebo-controlled trial did not lose more weight after adding Xenical to the regimen. Subjects who took phentermine and Xenical also failed to lose more weight. The limitation of the studies are that they only used small numbers of subjects, and did not look at initial weight loss using the combination. But early studies did not look promising. For further information see: • Meridia®Meridia and Xenical: Better together? September 2000, subscribers. • Meridia®Orlistat and phentermine for weight maintenance. November 1999, subscribers.
