Federal health advisers voted Monday to recommend over-the-counter sales of a weight-loss pill now sold only with a prescription.

GlaxoSmithKline Consumer Healthcare still needs final Food and Drug Administration approval before it can sell a nonprescription version of orlistat, a diet pill already marketed in prescription form as Xenical. The FDA approved the prescription version of the fat-blocking pill made by Roche in 1999.

A joint FDA advisory committee voted 11-3 to recommend approval late Monday after a daylong hearing. The agency usually follows the recommendations of its outside panels of experts, but its final decision could take months. If approved, orlistat would be the first weight-loss drug sanctioned for over-the-counter sales.

Read more at http://www.cnn.com/2006/HEALTH/diet.fitness/01/23/diet.pill.new.ap/.