Roche, the Swiss medicines group, yesterday received the harshest possible reprimand from its regulators for bringing "discredit upon the pharmaceutical industry" over the way it sold its weight-loss drug Xenical to private slimming clinics.

The Association of the British Pharmaceutical Ind-ustry suspended Roche for six months after its selfregulatory arm ruled the company had supplied the medicine in a way that showed "disregard for patient care", in breach of its code of practice.