October 13, 2010 – Weight Watchers International, Inc., the world's leading provider of weight management services, and Merck, a global healthcare leader, announced an innovative collaboration focused on fighting obesity. The two companies will launch an initiative in which Merck will provide physicians and other health care providers with educational information about the Weight Watchers® program and its underlying clinical evidence to assist doctors in addressing the ongoing weight management needs of their patients.
“Recently published research at the 2010 International Congress on Obesity demonstrated that the combination of the proven Weight Watchers behavior modification approach with physician’s encouragement provides a significant increase in patient adherence to weight-loss solutions and greater weight loss success than just standard physician care alone. Weight loss is an important component of preventing and addressing many health conditions, including diabetes and cardiovascular diseases such as hypertension. Because our weight management approach helps educate people on how to live a healthy lifestyle while allowing flexibility, the Weight Watchers program delivers real weight loss results. Collaborating with Merck will enable us to arm physicians with a comprehensive, sustainable, scalable and non-pharmaceutical solution for weight loss designed to help improve the overall health of their patients... Merck's Press Release -
