Results from a clinical trial show that a new treatment is able to reduce bone fracture risk in women with osteoporosis who normally have lower bone density.
Findings from the trial which lasted 24 months show that giving the new drug romosozumab (Amgen and UCB Pharma) for 12 months followed by the standard treatment (alendronate) was more effective at reducing the risk of new fractures occurring compared to alendronate alone. The trial followed a total of 2046 post-menopausal women with osteoporosis, which is a group at high risk of bone fracture.
The new drug works by stimulating bone formation and reducing the amount of bone decomposition, while the standard treatment acts by slowing down the process of bone thinning.
The study, which was carried out by an international team of researchers from Europe, Canada and the USA, and published in the New England Journal of Medicine, offers hope for an improved way of caring for patients with osteoporosis. However, the results also show that the new treatment may increase the risk of heart malfunction. So, how useful this treatment will be and whether it will meet the safety requirements for regulatory approval will remain to be seen.
Reference
Saag et al, The New England Journal of Medicine 2017
