In the March 25 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine, new research suggests that widely used osteoporosis drugs called bisphosphonates do not boost women’s risk for femur or thigh fractures, which is something prior studies had suggested.

Bisphosphonates are the main class of drugs used to treat osteoporosis. Bisphosphonates include medications such as Boniva (ibandronate), Fosamax (alendronate) and Reclast (zoledronic acid).

The study was funded by was funded by the pharmaceutical companies Novartis and Merck, which both make bisphosphonates.

To read the full story, click here.

Scientists at the University of Southampton believe that they can use a patient’s own skeletal stem cells in the hip joint during bone grafting to encourage more successful regrowth and repair. This new discovery could replace the need for outside bone donors. The grafting technique referred to  is the one used to repair the thigh bone and joint during replacement (known as ‘revision’) hip replacement therapy.

In a two-year study, funded by the Medical Research Council (MRC), collaborative study between the University of Southampton and The University of Nottingham, researchers plan to test their theory by taking adult stem cells from bone marrow in combination with an impaction process and polymer scaffolds.

To read the full story, click here.

University of Pennsylvania researchers have found that the investigational biologic agent tocilizumab appeared to prevent joint erosion among rheumatoid arthritis patients better than treatment with methotrexate alone. Over a two-year period, 75% of the people taking tocilizumab 4 mg/kg showed no radiographic progression or joint damage compared with 66% of patients taking methotrexate alone (P=0.0239).

A recent study, conducted by researchers at University of Rochester Medical Center and presented at the annual meeting of the American Society for Bone and Mineral Research in Denver, indicated that a drug already approved to heal bone loss from osteoporosis may also help to prevent and reverse the damage to cartilage that leads to osteoarthritis. Currently, there are no drugs to treat cartilage loss in osteoarthritis, a condition that’s expected to affect some 50 million Americans by 2020. Parathyroid hormone, sold as the prescription drug teriparatide (Forteo), is already approved by the FDA to maintain and heal bone, and earlier studies have suggested that it also affects cartilage cells.

Wyeth Pharmaceuticals reported promising results for bazedoxifene from a placebo-controlled Phase 3 study. The drug, a selective estrogen receptor modulator (SERM), is under clinical investigation for the prevention and treatment of postmenopausal osteoporosis. The trial of bazedoxifene 20 mg indicated a significant reduction in new vertebral fractures in postmenopausal women with osteoporosis.

Results from a late-stage trial of Amgen’s denosumab in advanced cancer patients with bone metastases showed that the drug delayed skeletal related events such as fracture, radiation to bone, surgery to bone or spinal cord compression. The phase 3 trial compared denosumab administered subcutaneously with FDA approved Zometa, or zoledronic acid, administered as an intravenous infusion to treat bone metastases in 1,776 advanced cancer patients with solid tumors.

According to a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine, osteoporosis drug denosumab prevented fractures and strengthened bones in men taking hormone therapy for prostate cancer. The study indicated that Denosumab reduced spinal fractures in prostate cancer patients by 62%, as compared to a placebo, and increased spinal bone mineral density.

An osteoporosis drug proven to save lives after hip fractures may do so by strengthening the body’s immune system, according to geriatrics researchers at Duke University Medical Center. In 2007, Duke researchers reported a 28% reduction in death among patients who received zoledronic acid (Reclast) within 90 days of surgery for a hip fracture. Zoledronic acid is a yearly intravenous injection of bisphosphonate that inhibits the progression of bone loss. The researchers also reported that the 2,111 people who participated in the study were 35% less likely to suffer another fracture.

According to a report in the Archives of Internal Medicine published on September 22, dieting with calorie restriction does not cause significant bone loss in young, overweight adults, provided adequate amounts of calcium and other nutrients are maintained. “Our data do not support the notion that extreme weight loss (more than 10%) over short periods (3 months) has a worse prognosis on bone health than gradual weight loss achieved over 6 months by moderate calorie restriction with or without aerobic exercise,” Dr. Leanne M. Redman, from Pennington Biomedical Research Center in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and colleagues conclude.