The New Osteoporosis Drug
Posted by Admin | Posted in Health News, Osteoporosis | Posted on 10-12-2009
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One of the best and the new ways for curing one of the oldest diseases in the history of ailments is osteoporosis. This new drug is called denosumab. This new drug will be launched very soon.
This biological drug – denosumab is consumed through injections every six months and the researchers have stated about its safety and effectiveness in the futuristic and informative online journal New England Journal of Medicine.
In the month of August the FDA advisory panel will meet and decide the future of this new drug that may cure osteoporosis.
Studies Regarding The Drug
This drug functions in a different manner than the other drugs that cure osteoporosis. This new drug connects with a protein present in the body called Rankl and the cells termed as osteoclasts split as it a protocol of the bone remodeling pattern.
The main idea that effectively facilitates the functioning of the drug is the slowing down of the bone-fragmenting process in human beings. People suffering from osteoporosis generally have thin bones and the drug stops the further thinning down process.
This drug hogged limelight in September 2008 when it was announced that this wonder drug may manifest the curing of the disease. This idea was presented in the yearly meet of the American Society for Bone and Mineral Research in Montreal.
The trials of the drug have been researched and even published in journals along with a different category of research that focuses on men suffering from the cancer of the prostate and the consumption of the bone weakening remedy to cure the deadly disease.
Both the studies saw the patients receive an injection of denosumab or placebo every six months for a span of three years. And in both the studies the patients consuming denosumab displayed the lesser fracture of bones.
Postmenopausal Study
In the postmenopausal study of treating osteoporosis the total number of subjects included 7,800 women between the ages of sixty to ninety years suffering from the ailment of osteoporosis. About 2.3 % of the subjects developed new fractures in their bones after consuming denosumab and 7.2% of the subjects that consumed placebo developed the same.
A notable difference of 68% was seen and this was concluded by the eminent researcher Steven Cummings, MD, director of the San Francisco Coordinating Center at the California Pacific Medical Center and a university lecturer of medicine and epidemiology at the University of California at San Francisco.
Cummings has stated the vast difference is great as it helps in the reduction of vertebral fractures of the already thin bones.
Prostate Cancer Study
This study witnessed 1400 men as subjects that suffer from prostate cancer. After the consumption of denosumab 1.5% of the patients suffered new fractures whereas after consuming placebo 3.9% of the patients suffered new vertebral fractures.
The viewing of the spectacular decrease of fractures of the bone in a span of three years with men suffering the deadly cancer is a great achievement. This has been stated by Matthew Smith, MD, PhD. He is the director of genitourinary medical oncology at Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center.