Clinical trial results are expected to be presented on Dec. 5th showing that diet pill Acomplia (rimonabant) -- still not approved as a weight-loss drug in the United States -- can also help control newly diagnosed Type 2 diabetes.

The data, scheduled for presentation at the 19th World Diabetes Congress in Cape Town, South Africa, is clearly extremely positive, because Sanofi already has scheduled an internet news conference to tout the Acomplia results that same day.

The results will be from the SERENADE (Study Evaluating Rimonabant Efficacy in Drug Naive Diabetic Patients) trial, a six-month study which began in March 2005.

The study enrolled 281 participants, with researchers focusing on whether Acomplia aids glycemic control (as measured by HbA1C, an indicator of the level of blood glucose) in newly-diagnosed Type 2 diabetes patients not adequately controlled by diet.

Sanofi's presentation of the data to the media and analysts will be made by Douglas Greene, the company's chief medical officer in the United States and the executive who has led Sanofi's efforts to get Acomplia approved as a weight-loss drug by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

Sanofi clearly intends to ultimately seek to get a diabetes indication added to the weight-loss indication, in hopes that this will bolster prospects that European governments and U.S. health insurers will pay for what is otherwise a quite expensive prescription drug.