( Health.com ) -- Overweight people with a history of heart disease who take the prescription weight-loss drug Meridia may be at increased risk of heart attack or stroke , according to a study published this week in the New England Journal of Medicine . The study confirms longstanding concerns about the safety of Meridia in people with heart disease and other heart problems , who are already warned against taking the drug . A Food and Drug Administration ( FDA ) advisory committee is scheduled to meet later this month to discuss the possibility of increased regulation for Meridia . The meeting was prompted by the preliminary results from the study , known as SCOUT , which were released by the agency in November 2009 . Health.com : 9 surprising heart attack risks . In the study -- which was sponsored by the drug 's maker , Abbott Laboratories -- researchers followed 10,744 overweight and obese people who had heart disease or type 2 diabetes and a risk factor for heart disease ( such as high blood pressure ) for about 3.5 years . During that time , 4.1 percent and 2.6 percent of the people taking Meridia had a nonfatal heart attack or stroke , respectively , compared with 3.2 percent and 1.9 percent of the people taking a placebo pill . That translates into a 28 percent increased risk of heart attack and a 36 percent increased risk of stroke , according to the study . However , Meridia did not appear to increase the risk of heart attack or stroke in diabetics with no history of heart disease . Nor did the researchers find any differences in the death rates from heart attack , stroke , or other causes in people taking Meridia versus placebo . Health.com : Heart trouble ? 30 herbal remedies to avoid . Lead researcher W. Philip T. James , M.D. , an obesity expert at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine , in the U.K. , says that the study underscores that Meridia should not be prescribed to people with existing heart problems . But , he adds , `` it does not prove that you should extrapolate the data to the normal population for which the drug is intended . '' The active ingredient in Meridia , sibutramine , suppresses appetite by affecting levels of the brain chemicals serotonin and norepinephrine . The drug is designed to be used by overweight and obese people , not by people who are a bit chubby and are trying to slim down . Health.com : 25 diet-busting foods you should never eat . Meridia has been shown to slightly raise blood pressure and heart rate , and the cardiovascular risk associated with the drug has been known for years . Since being approved by the FDA in 1997 , Meridia has carried a warning on its label that says the drug should not be used in people with a history of heart disease , heart failure , heart-rhythm problems , or stroke . In January 2010 , after reviewing the preliminary data from the SCOUT study , the FDA asked Abbott to strengthen the warning . The European Medicines Agency -- the European equivalent of the FDA -- chose to suspend sales of the drug in the European Union . In an editorial accompanying the study , three New England Journal of Medicine editors suggest that the heart risk associated with Meridia is not justified by the weight loss seen in the study -- about 9.5 pounds ( or 4.5 percent of initial body weight ) after one year , on average . `` [ I ] t is difficult to discern a credible rationale for keeping this medication on the market , '' the editors write . Health.com : Three new weight-loss drugs : will they work ? The FDA would be going too far if it pulled the drug from the market , says Donna H. Ryan , M.D. , associate executive director for clinical research at the Pennington Biomedical Research Center , in Baton Rouge , Louisiana . She notes that the patients taking Meridia who were at greater risk for heart attack and stroke in the SCOUT study -- those with preexisting cardiovascular disease -- are already precluded from taking the drug . The study should not be interpreted to mean that the drug should n't be used at all , says Ryan , who prior to 2008 served as a consultant for Abbott and other manufacturers of obesity drugs . `` The study does n't really support that , and indeed , in the population where you did n't have preexisting cardiovascular disease ... there is no increased risk , '' she says . Sidney Wolfe , M.D. , the director of the health research group at Public Citizen , a consumer advocacy organization that petitioned the FDA to ban Meridia for safety reasons in 2002 , says that even people who have n't been diagnosed with heart disease should avoid Meridia . Some obese people have unrecognized heart problems that may be aggravated by the drug , he says . Meridia `` should never have been approved in the first place , '' Wolfe adds . The FDA 's advisory committee on endocrinologic and metabolic drugs will discuss Meridia on September 15 . The agency is not required to follow the committee 's recommendations , but it typically does . Copyright Health Magazine 2011 .
Those with a history of heart disease who take Meridia may be at high risk of heart attack . The FDA is scheduled to meet this month to discuss increased regulation for Meridia . Comment: