New osteoporosis drug shows promise

August 2016

Abaloparatide is expected to win approval from U.S. federal regulators

A large clinical trial of a new osteoporosis drug found that it stimulates bone growth and prevents fractures at least as well as the only other such drug on the market.

The new drug, expected to win approval from U.S. federal regulators, would offer another, much-needed treatment for those who have a disease that weakens bones and often leads to years of pain, disability and early death.

Bone is naturally lost with age. But osteoporosis is an extreme, abnormal bone loss that can cause devastating fractures, particularly of the spine and hip.

The new drug — abaloparatide — looks promising, according to the clinical trial conducted by Radius, whose results were published Tuesday in JAMA, the journal of the American Medical Association.

The trial compared abaloparatide with a placebo and with the only other bone-building drug on the market, Eli Lilly’s Forteo. New York Times News Service