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Baltimore, Maryland

The Yost Legal Group in Baltimore, Maryland is a multi – service personal injury law firm focusing on serious personal injury and wrongful death cases.

Archive for February, 2012

Osteoporosis Treatment

Thursday, February 16th, 2012

Osteoporosis is a disease in which your bones lose mass, strength, and density. The result can be bone fractures, particularly in weight bearing joints like hips, ankles, and knees. There is no cure for osteoporosis, which is why doctors recommend prevention as opposed to treatment. Some osteoporosis drugs are known as bisphosphonates.  These include:

•           Actonel – Procter & Gamble

•           Aredia – Novartis

•           Boniva – Roche

•           Didronel – Procter & Gamble

•           Fosamax – Merck

•           Reclast – Novartis

•           Skelid – Sanofi-Aventis

•           Zometa – Novartis

Bisphosphonates are used to slow the progression of the disease.  One of the most popular bisphosphonates is Fosamax.

Fosamax was introduced to the public in 1995. Since then, it has become Merck’s second bestselling drug. Fosamax is intended to prevent osteoporosis, and thereby reduce the risk of fractures in weight-bearing joints.  But in the 16 years since Fosamax has been on the market, medical and scientific published studies have borne out that long-term use of Fosamax can increase the risk of transverse femur fractures or atypical femur fractions.  The femur is the biggest bone in the thigh of your leg.  The medical community is questioning the benefit of using Fosamax after a period of more than four or five years.

Fosamax initially has a beneficial effect in reducing the risk of osteoporosis and the resulting fractures in weaker bones by decreasing the bone breakdown.  Our bodies are constantly in a cycle of breaking down our bones by osteoclasts and rebuilding the same bones by osteoblasts.  This process continuously renews our bones’ quality and durability.  Fosamax and other bisphosphonates work by decreasing the bone breakdown.  This has a result of making the bone more dense, but also causes bone mineralization and brittleness.  Small cracks develop in bones that are highly mineralized.  If the process of bone regeneration is stopped, small crack ultimately develop into stress fractures and eventually complete fractures.

Although Fosamax was originally approved for marketing in the United States to treat osteoporosis, Merck had a responsibility of post-market surveillance.  Drugs are usually approved after a limited number of people are tested with those drugs to see if they are generally safe and generally work and are effective in the treatment of a medical condition for a period of time.  Once the drug is on the market for an extended period of time, long-term benefits and risks of a drug become apparent to its manufacturer.  Manufacturers are notified by doctors, their patients, and sometimes by reports directly to the FDA about adverse outcomes of people taking their drugs.  Several studies have been published in the scientific and medical literature that have shown an increased risk of femur fracture in people taking Fosamax and other bisphosphonates after five years when compared to people who do not take bisphosphonates.

If you or a loved one has suffered a transverse femur fracture or atypical femur fracture after prolonged bisphosphonate or Fosamax use, contact one of the experienced defective drug attorneys at the Yost Legal Group for a free initial consultation.

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