Prescription weight-loss drug Xenical hit drugstore shelves on Friday with a new name -- Alli (pronounced: "Al-eye") and with a new non-prescription strength. The newly-named drug is to be more effective with less unpleasureable side effects. Still, there's a problem surrounding this drug, regardless of its name. It's thought to cause colon cancer.

The nonprofit group Public Citizen says Alli, made by GlaxoSmithKline, has been shown in mice studies to cause pre-cancerous lesions in the colon. Since there are no long-term studies on humans, this group believes the FDA should not have approved the drug for non-prescription use. It's not clear whether or not the pre-cancerous spots will lead to colon cancer but the mere suggestion that it might is enough, says a Public Citizen spokesperson.

"What we do know is that these lesions occur much more frequently in people who do get colon cancer," he said. "Why do we recommend that everyone get a colonscopy at the age of 50? Because you pick up on these polyps when you do one. And, even though not all of the polyps are pre-cancerous, no (doctor) does a colonscopy without removing every single polyp that is found. And you do this because you know if you don't, it greatly increases the chances of getting cancer."

Public Citizen, a consumer watchdog group, has petitioned the Food and Drug Administration, FDA, to remove Xenical, a prescription obesity drug, off the market due to fears it can lead to breast and colon cancer. At this time, there is also the possibility the weight loss drug will be approved for over-the-counter sales, and the consumer group is asking the FDA to refuse approval of that move. However, last week, in a potentially disturbing turn of event, the FDA granted drug company GlaxoSmithKline conditional approval for the drug to be sold without a prescription as long as it met certain undisclosed criteria.

Dr. Sidney Wolfe, director of Public Citizen's Health Research Group, said in a statement, "The failure to ban the prescription version of this drug or worse, to make it much more widely available by allowing OTC sales, is a decision that is likely to increase cancer incidence."

In the past, Public Citizen has alerted consumers about the dangers of Vioxx, Ephedra, Bextra, Rezulin, Baycol, Propulsid and many other drugs years before the drugs were pulled from the market.