Dr Haboubi, who is also chair of the National Obesity Forum for Wales and runs the country's only NHS-funded obesity clinic, said the problem was "huge, massive, worse than England, worse than anywhere in the UK and among the worst in the western world, I would argue".

BBC: Obesity in Wales 'just behind USA', Dr Nadim Haboubi warns

Dr Haboubi, who is also chair of the National Obesity Forum for Wales and runs the country's only NHS-funded obesity clinic, said last month that the problem was "huge, massive, worse than England, worse than anywhere in the UK and among the worst in the western world, I would argue".

BBC: An obese woman

Sanofi is developing an anti-smoking, anti-obesity pill that doctors at the Cleveland Clinic plan to test to see if it prevents heart attacks and strokes.

FORBES: Drug Patent Peril

"It's promising and also a bit scary, " says Steven Nissen, a cardiologist at the Cleveland Clinic who is working on another obesity drug, the much anticipated Acomplia from Sanofi-Aventis (nyse: SNY - news - people ).

FORBES: Fat Chances

"There are those holding out for the magic pill or the obesity gene, " says Dr. Donald Hensrud, a preventive medicine specialist at the Mayo Clinic.

FORBES: The Next Fat Pill