Another round of good news about the diet-drug Acomplia seems likely to be forthcoming on June 12th when researchers publicly report for the first time on results of the RIO-Diabetes trial at the American Diabetes Association's annual scientific meeting in San Diego.

The year-long Rimonabant in Obesity-Diabetes study, a multi-center trial which enrolled 1,000 obese patients with type 2 diabetes, will be the last of the four major Acomplia studies to report trial results before U.S. and European regulators are expected to act on Sanofi-Aventis' application to bring the drug to market.

In this trial, researchers compared weight-loss, improvements in metabolic variables, and reduction in cardiovascular risk factors for obese diabetics who took Acomplia compared to those on a placebo.

Announcement of the results of the RIO-Diabetes trial is slated for a symposium on "Late-Breaking Clinical Trials" scheduled to be held at 2 pm PDT June 12th.

Researchers have hinted privately to reporters that the results are consistent with the highly encouraging results from their three studies reported earlier -- RIO-North America, RIO-Europe and RIO-Lipids.

The fact that the results are going to be presented at the highest-profile symposium at the American Diabetes Association meeting -- only weeks after Sanofi filed for approval of the drug with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and European regulators -- also strongly suggests more positive news is forthcoming.

The Acomplia Report will be covering this symposium and related news briefings, and will bring you the latest news on the RIO-Diabetes study as soon as it becomes available.