Information for Medical Professionals

Lasofoxifene linked to reduced fracture rates

Postmenopausal women on a daily dose of lasofoxifene have less chance of suffering from both vertebral and non-vertebral fractures, it has been claimed.

However, the drug looks to have no significant clinical benefits over the alternative treatment raloxifene.

According to the new Postmenopausal Evaluation and Risk-Reduction with Lasofoxifene trial, however, the non-steroidal estrogen-receptor modulator was linked to an increased risk of venous thromboembolism.

Writing in the New England Journal of Medicine, Carolyn Becker, managing director of the Brigham Women's Hospital, said: "The results of the Postmenopausal Evaluation and Risk-Reduction with Lasofoxifene trial suggest that [the drug] offers no major clinically important benefits over raloxifene for the skeleton... [and] seems to offer little, if any, advantage over raloxifene as an agent against osteoporosis."

Meanwhile, experimental research published in Nature recently showed that a drug which inhibits serotonin production in the gut could cure osteoporosis.

The researchers behind the study, conducted on post-menopausal rats, claimed that a new range of osteoporosis drugs could be developed as a result.

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