MASSDEVICE ON CALL —Allergan (NYSE:AGN) pulled back on efforts to win FDA approval to market its Lap-Band weight-loss device to teens, the Los Angeles Times reported.
Allergan has long had the FDA’s OK to market the device to adults and doctors can already choose to prescribe Lap-Band treatment to younger patients with parent approval, but the aesthetics device maker can’t legally market the weight-loss device to teenagers.
"We made the decision at the beginning of the year to not pursue an adolescent indication for the Lap-Band system in the U.S. and worldwide," spokeswoman Naziah Lasi-Tejani told the paper.
A study released late last month suggested that obese teenagers who undergo bariatric weight-loss surgery may have a better chance later in life of staving off diabetes, hypertension, asthma and other health issues than if they remain obese into adulthood.
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