51�Թ�

Safety problems in the 1990s with the anti-obesity treatment known as fen-phen, which had to be withdrawn from the market, were also fresh in their minds.

Compared with fen-phen, a popular weight-loss drug in the 1990s that was eventually linked to heart-valve problems, doctors are less concerned about semaglutide, because older drugs in its class have been used to treat diabetes for nearly two decades.

The ban was implemented in part because of concerns over the safety of weight-loss drugs at the time, such as the combination of fenfluramine and phentermine, or fen-phen, which was associated with life-threatening hypertension and heart valve issues.

For example, the popular diet drug of the 1980s and 90s was fen-phen, which contained appetite suppressants fenfluramine and phentermine.

But after users experienced heart valve and lung disease, fen-phen was withdrawn from the market in 1997.