This international multi-center, double-blind, placebo-controlled study enrolled 1,036 overweight or obese patients with dyslipidemia (high triglycerides and/or a high total cholesterol/HDL cholesterol ratio) and a Body Mass Index (BMI) between 27 and 40.

Patients were randomized to receive for one year either a low daily, fixed dose of 5 mg of rimonabant, a higher dose of 20 mg of rimonabant, or a placebo along with a reduced calorie diet.

Patients on the higher dose of rimonabant were far more successful in losing weight than patients on the lower dose or in the placebo control group.

Nearly 75% of patients treated for one year with the higher dose of rimonabant lost more than 5 percent of their body weight compared to 41.8 percent of those on the low dose of rimonabant and 27.6 percent of patients in the control group.

Moreover, 44.3% of patients treated for one year with the higher dose of rimonabant lost more than 10 percent of their body weight compared to 16.3% of patients on the low dose of rimonabant and 10.3% of patients in the control group.

The researchers also reported that patients treated for a year with the higher dose of rimonabant reduced their waist circumference by an average of 3.5 inches.

"In this study rimonabant was effective in reducing abdominal obesity, which is now known to be a major independent risk factor for cardiovascular disease," said Jean-Pierre Despres, principal researcher for the RIO-Lipids study and Director of Research at the Quebec Heart Institute.

"While the weight loss seen was clinically relevant, what is truly remarkable in this study was the significant effect that rimonabant had on improving associated cardiovascular risk factors such as waist circumference, and glucose and lipid profiles," Despres reported.