The drug Abaloparatide was found to significantly reduce the risk of new vertebral and nonvertebral fractures among postmenopausal women with osteoporosis after 18 months of daily injections in a multicountry, randomized trial led by the Colorado Center for Bone Research.
1,901 postmenopausal women with osteoporosis received active treatment or placebo for 18 months. New vertebral fractures accurred less often in the abaloparatide group. Increases in bone mineral density was greater with the drug versus placebo, and the incidence of hypercalcemia was lower.
Based on 2010 U.S. Census data, a study estimated the prevalence of osteoporosis among women 50 to 69 years of age at 3.4 million. It has been estimated that the lifetime risk of osteoporotic fracture for a 60-year-old woman is 44%.
Additional therapies are needed for prevention of osteoporotic fractures. As a result of its mechanism of action, it has been hypothesized that the drug abaloparatide, a synthetic peptide, would have a more pronounced anabolic (i.e., bone growing) action on bone compared with the osteoporosis drug teriparatide.
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