Separately, Vivus has now succumbed to shareholder pressure and begun holdings talks with large drugmakers to market its Qsymia diet pill, which has so far failed to live up to its promise, despite becoming the first commercially available prescription diet pill to be approved by the FDA in more than a decade.

FORBES: Will The Prescription Diet Pill Market Finally Bulk Up?

Over the past 24 hours, two developments finally occurred to suggest overweight consumers will soon have an expanding choice of prescription diet pill options.

FORBES: Will The Prescription Diet Pill Market Finally Bulk Up?

While citrus aurantium may have fewer side effects and be easier to obtain than prescription diet pills, I think the risk, cost and lack of clear benefit of supplements containing this compound do not make it a better alternative to diet pills.

CNN: Is bitter orange extract a safer diet pill alternative?

To some, this may appear to be a big plus for Vivus, which has so far failed to live up to its promise, despite selling what is the first commercially available prescription diet pill to be approved by the FDA in more than a decade.

FORBES: Vivus And Its Diet Pill Get A Needed Break, But Will This Make A Difference?

Two months after Vivus launched the Qsymia diet pill, the first new prescription drug in more than a decade is still not showing signs of becoming the blockbuster some had predicted.

FORBES: The Vivus Fat Pill Struggles With Thin Sales

Millions of us are popping prescription pills for innocuous ills, when simple lifestyle changes of diet and exercise--harped on by physicians for decades--are more effective and a lot cheaper.

FORBES: Just Say No

"The aim of providing gluten-free food products on NHS prescription is to encourage patients with coeliac disease to stick to a gluten-free, nutritious diet so they do not go on to develop more serious illnesses, which can affect their quality of life as well as being much more costly for the NHS, " he said in a statement.

BBC: NHS 'paid ?17 for gluten-free pizza base'