After more than a year of asking, we now have Sanofi's official explanation why diet drug rimonabant -- sold as Acomplia in Europe and the rest of the world -- will be marketed in the United States (if and when it is approved) as Zimulti.

According to Hanspeter Spek, Sanofi's executive vice president for pharmaceutical operations, the FDA office that passes on proposed names of drugs had "reservations" about the name Acomplia.

"This division considered that Acomplia could be too descriptive or eventually misleading indicating that a patient taking Acomplia would acomplish his therapeutical target," Spek said on a conference call.

"We proposed other trademarks and the FDA agreed finally on Zimulti," Spek added.