A new pill has gone on sale in New Zealand proclaiming to be the solution to losing weight, but is it all it's cracked up to be?
Calocurb was given a $20 million grant by the Government eight years ago for development and has now hit shelves with its hop flower based pill.
It says their testing showed participants would eat 240 calories less due to the pills, but that testing was only on 19 men and the results haven't been published yet.
"I don't think any clinician like myself would be prepared to consider recommending it to their patients without proper long term clinical trials," Professor Jim Mann from the University of Otago to Three's The Project.
Calocurb's CEO Sarah Kennedy spoke to The Project and defended going to market before the study was published in a peer reviewed journal, saying it has already been submitted to one.
"Once it's been peer reviewed and then submitted it's just a period of time," she said.
"We're ready with the product we believe, you know this is a real opportunity this is 100 percent natural which just helps that appetite control."
Once the study is out Ms Kennedy says staff at Three's The Project will be among the first to see the evidence, she's promised to send the study through "as soon as it's published".
As for the reason they only did a study on men's reaction to the pills? Hormones.
"You do your first one on men because with women there's a lot more hormones. The next trial is on women and that will be across thirty women," Ms Kennedy said.
It seems consumers will have to make up their own mind about Calocurb, which costs $60 a bottle and hopes to tap into the 2.1 billion dollar US weight loss supplement market.
Newshub.
