New Drug Reduces Fracture Risk

Breaking your hip increases your risk of suffering another fracture. A once-a-year injection of a new drug could substantially reduce that fracture risk for the 300,000 Americans who break a hip each year.

In a 5-year international study, 2,100 hip fracture patients were given an annual 15-minute infusion of either the osteoporosis drug Reclast or a placebo. During the 5-year monitoring period, those who received the drug were 35% less likely to break another bone.

At $1,000 a dose, Reclast certainly isn't cheap, but it could be a bargain compared to the cost of treatment, care and rehabilitation for a major fracture. For many seniors, a broken hip requires a month or more of care in a nursing home rehabilitation center. Some never fully recover from a broken hip and lose their mobility. By reducing fracture risk, the new treatment could allow more seniors to continue living healthy, active lives in their own homes.

Study results are "very, very good in terms of both fracture reduction and effects on bone density," said Dr. Stephen Honig, director of New York University Hospital's Osteoporosis Center. Sponsored by drug company Novartis which makes Reclast, the study was led by Dr. Kenneth Lyles of the Duke University Medical Center in Durham, NC.

Published in the November 1, 2007, New England Journal of Medicine, the study did not address safety issues for Reclast, which the FDA approved for osteoporosis use in August. The FDA has announced plans to review Reclast and other osteoporosis drugs, including Actonel, Boniva and Fosamax, for a possible link to irregular heartbeat.