No link between bone drug, fractures
FDA: Women taking Fosamax not at increased risk
Study: Bone-strengthening drugs could backfire
March 10: Two small studies suggest that a small percentage of patients who use certain drugs to prevent bone loss for more than five years could be at greater risk for a rare type of hip fracture. NBC's Robert Bazell reports.
Nightly News
updated 12:56 p.m. ET, Thurs., March. 11, 2010
BOSTON - U.S. regulators said they have found no link between oral bisphosphonate osteoporosis medications such as Merck & Co Inc.'s Fosamax and certain thigh bone fractures.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued its statement Wednesday following the publication of case reports of atypical subtrochanteric femur fractures — or fractures in the bone just below the hip joint — in women with osteoporosis using oral bisphosphonates.
Bisphosphonates are a class of drug aimed at preventing bone fractures and offseting bone loss associated with menopause.
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They include Fosamax, Roche Holding AG's Boniva, Novartis' Reclast and Warner Chilcott's Actonel.
In June 2008, the FDA requested information from all bisphosphonate drug makers related to these type of fractures. The agency said a review of the data did not show an increased risk for women using the medications.
The FDA said that, although its review of the data did not show a clear connection between bisphosphonates and atypical subtrochanteric femur fractures, the agency is working closely with outside experts to gain more insight into the issue.
Bisphosphonates, which have been on the market for roughly a decade, have raised safety concerns in the past, including heart risks.
But in 2008, the FDA said the drugs showed no overall risk of heart problems. The agency's review followed reports in the New England Journal of Medicine of serious atrial fibrillation, a type of abnormal heartbeat.
In January, a Manhattan federal judge refused to dismiss a lawsuit alleging that Fosamax caused jaw damage to a woman during the nearly eight years she took the pill.
Merck faces a slew of lawsuits involving almost 900 cases by patients who say Fosamax caused osteonecrosis of the jaw, or death of jaw bone tissue.
"In clinical studies, Fosamax has not been associated with increased fracture risk at any skeletal site," Merck spokesman Ron Rogers said in a statement.
"Low energy femoral shaft and subtrochanteric fractures have been reported in the medical literature as occurring in non-bisphosphonate users," Rogers noted, adding that Merck is currently conducting studies "to further investigate the issue of low energy femoral shaft and subtrochanteric fractures."
The FDA recommended patients keep taking their medication unless told not to by their doctor. It also recommended that healthcare professionals be aware of a "possible risk" of atypical subtrochanteric femur fractures in patients taking oral bisphosphonates.
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