Teriparatide and Raloxifene May Reduce Vertebral Fracture Risk
BY LAUREN UZDIENSKI, JUNE 29, 2009
We reported back in April that teriparatide, a recombinant form of parathyroid hormone marketed by Eli Lilly as Forteo, may help bones to heal following a fracture. Now a new study published in JBJS reports on an additional application for teriparatide: preventing new vertebral fractures in osteoporotic patients.
The analysis was conducted from previously-published data from about 1,200 patients in the Fracture Prevention Trial. These patients were able to walk, had undergone menopause at least five years previously and had at least one moderate or two mild atraumatic vertebral fractures at baseline.
At approximately two years, teriparatide was shown to “significantly reduce” the occurrence of new vertebral fractures in the study population. New, new adjacent and new nonadjacent vertebral fractures were reduced by 72%, 75% and 70%, respectively, when compared to placebo.
Raloxifene, a selective estrogen receptor modulator used to prevent osteoporosis, was found to have similar benefits. New, new adjacent and new nonadjacent vertebral fractures were reduced by 54%, 54% and 53%, respectively, when compared to placebo. The raloxifene data was pulled from about 2,500 patients in the Multiple Outcomes of Raloxifene Evaluation (MORE) trial. Raloxifene is marketed as Evista by Eli Lilly, who also provided funding for the study.

Ray Elliott is famous in our industry for having led Zimmer 10 years first as President and then as Chairman, President and CEO. Through growth and acquisition, Elliott led Zimmer from $1 billion to $4 billion in revenues thereby creating $15 billion in incremental shareholder value. Nevertheless, Zimmer was challenged by a continuing Department of Justice investigation and oversight and lack of product innovation after Elliott’s departure.
Medical conditions that affect sensory nerves outside the brain and spinal cord are known as sensory neuronopathies. These conditions, which are extremely painful, include shingles and can be caused by anticancer drugs such as cisplatin. In many sensory neuronopathies, the nerves that are dysfunctional are those in a region of the body known as the dorsal root ganglion (DRG), and these conditions are particularly difficult to treat. However, Lawrence Chan and colleagues, at Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, have developed an approach to target therapeutic genes to nerves in the DRG, and used it to reduce sensory nerve dysfunction in a mouse model of Sandhoff disease, an inherited condition in which many nerves, including those in the DRG, are affected.
“We are pleased with the significant surgeon adoption of OsseoFix across Europe. Surgeons who are using the OsseoFix system benefit from the potential to improve patient outcomes by providing an enhanced ability for vertebral height maintenance while using less cement as a result of the permanent titanium implant. As this product represents our initial launch into the aging spine market, we are particularly pleased with the manner in which the adoption of OsseoFix appears to be accelerating. Over 60 patients were treated in May alone,” said Dirk Kuyper, Alphatec Spine’s President and Chief Executive Officer. Mr. Kuyper added, “Our next training lab, which will be held in July in Vienna, is oversubscribed, with 50 surgeons and over 70 total participants already enrolled in what will be our third training session.”