- 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