JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – This week the FDA is set to re-consider a diet pill drug it has already rejected.
If it's passed, it would be the first new prescription diet pill in 13 years.
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The drug is called Qnexa, but there are serious health concerns, including heart risk and birth defects.
Pharmacist Gary Roberts said, "There is a place for them. You know they can give you that initial kick or that initial start."
Gary Roberts with Roberts pharmacy said diet pills usually work, but they're not the healthy way to shed unwanted pounds.
Instead, most diet pills have side effects, which is why many people refuse to take them.
Marty Cawley is against diet pills and said, "Chemically is what I would be concerned about. The chemical composition of the pills."
The FDA declined to approve the drug Qnexa two years ago, citing the risks of birth defects and cardiovascular problems. But the California based company now wants limited approval of Qnexa, if it's excluded from women in their childbearing years.
"Being a central nervous system stimulant, it can cause a lot problems nutritionally. It can hurt an unborn baby nutritionally. Also your stimulating the babies nervous system, and it could lead to problems down the road," Roberts said.
Qnexa is a combination of two drugs, Phentermine, which is an appetite suppressant, and Topiramate, a drug that is used to treat seizures and migranes which can also be a mood stabilizer.
Because Qnexa isn't available on the open market, some doctors have been prescribing the components, creating an off label brand.
Roberts along with other local pharmacists said diet pills in general are a crutch, and often do more harm than good.
"The FDA should look at this very closely," Roberts said. "Some are linked to being fatal."