Alendronate, a bisphosphonate, was recently approved by the Food and Drug Administration for treatment of postmenopausal osteoporosis. This class of drugs targets bone specifically, reducing bone breakdown and decreasing fractures in older women. This development, along with other advances, creates vast opportunities to expand the current knowledge base, continuing in a diversified approach to osteoporosis. Lower doses combinations of effective agents may serve to reduce side effects and risks associated with current individual drug treatments, and may improve overall responsiveness. These studies will also generate information on osteoporosis in men, children, adolescents, and others who have diseases and conditions that put them at high risk of osteoporosis, not just on postmenopausal women, the group on whom most private sector research has been concentrated.
Men develop osteoporosis and osteoporotic fractures about a decade later than women do.
This has been attributed to a higher peak bone mass at maturity and a more gradual diminition in sex steroid influence in aging men. At each age the rate of hip fracture in men is about 50 percent that in women. With the decline in premature cardiovascular mortality in men, fractures later in life are becoming an increasingly important cause of morbidity and mortality in older men. In response to this solicitation, a large epidemiologic study will be launched to study the risk factors for fractures in men over age 65. Ultrasound technology is emerging as an alternative to bone densitometry for some clinical applications, and studies are also underway to develop blood and urine tests that may one day be used to screen for osteoporosis.