NEW WARNING ON ANTI-OBESITY DRUG

WASHINGTON (AP) - Doctors are getting extra warning that the nation's newest anti-obesity drug is somewhat riskier than previously thought.

When the Food and Drug Administration approved Redux in April, research indicated it could cause a rare but dangerous lung disorder.

People who used Redux, known chemically as dexfenfluramine, for longer than three months were about nine times more likely than the average American to get primary pulmonary hypertension.

New research indicates that Redux users actually have 23 times the risk of the sometimes fatal disease, which damages the heart when the lungs can't pump enough oxygen to it.

That's a fairly small threat: Between 23 and 46 cases of pulmonary hypertension for every million who use Redux annually.

Articles appear as they were originally printed in The Telegraph Herald and may not include subsequent corrections.