Since 2010, makers of diet drugs have spent more than $60m (£40m;€56m) on lobbying, medical society sponsorships, and payments to physicians to get their weight loss drugs to the market, says a joint investigative report by the medical news website MedPage Today and the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

The size of the market is considerable: the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has estimated that over a third (34.9%; 78.6 million) of US adults are obese. The new report alleged that many efforts by drug companies have been aimed at pressuring the US Food and Drug Administration.

For more details, go to: http://www.bmj.com/content/350/bmj.h2138?etoc=