As FDA advisers meet today to discuss whether to approve Vivus’s weight loss drug Qnexa, new research shows that a competing medicine not only helps people shed pounds but does so with few side effects.

A study out today in the New England Journal of Medicine finds that after one year’s treatment with Arena Pharmaceutical’s lorcaserin, nearly half the patients on the diet drug lost at least 5% of their body weight — corresponding to an average loss of around 6 kilograms — compared to only around 20% of subjects taking placebo pills. What’s more, the drug did not increase blood pressure or cause any other heart problems among the more than 1,000 patients monitored for two years, the company-sponsored trial revealed.

“In this long-term study of lorcaserin for treating patients for obesity, there was good weight loss, outstanding safety profile and the drug was extremely well-tolerated,” lead author Steven Smith of the Translational Research Institute for Metabolism and Diabetes in Winter Park, Florida, told Bloomberg.

So, watch out Qnexa — here comes lorcaserin. Arena’s diet pill is slated to have its day in the FDA spotlight in September.