RENO – The state Board of Medical Examiners has set in motion a change in regulations to allow doctors to prescribe a drug hailed by advocates as highly effective in reducing weight.
Nevada is the only state in the West that bans chorionic gonadotrophic hormones or hCG (cq).
Jacob Hafter, a Las Vegas attorney, told the board consumers are spending $600 to $2,000 in other states and “they are finding it works.” He said there have not been any cases of death or ill effects after taking the substance.
Board Chairman Dr. Charles Held said the drug could produce such side effects as headaches or nausea. Board member Dr. Benjamin Rodriguez of Las Vegas said his concern was that “unscrupulous physicians will market and promote it in a matter that is not true.”
But the board voted unanimously to amend its regulation prohibiting the prescription of the drug. It will be four to six months before the final regulation will be adopted after it goes through review by the Legislative Commission and public hearings.
Hafter said the drug is produced from the urine of pregnant women and is “not an anabolic steroid.”
He said obesity has become a major health problem in the United States, and in his petition to the board, he said “diets are meant to target the burning of fat.” But these diets don't just burn fat but also result in loss of muscle mass, he said. This drug doesn't reduce muscle mass but does eliminate fat, he argued.
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