A new study gives reassuring news about the safety of Fosamax and Reclast, bone-building drugs taken by millions of American women. It found that long-term use does not significantly raise the risk of a rare type of fracture near the hip.
On balance, these drugs prevent far more fractures than any they may cause when used to treat the bone-thinning disease osteoporosis, said the study's leader, Dr. Dennis Black of the
movie posters University of California, San Francisco.
"If we treated 1,000 osteoporotic women for three years, we estimate you would prevent 100 fractures," at a possible cost of one or fewer of the unusual bone breaks examined in this study, he said.
Results were published online Wednesday by the New England Journal of Medicine.
Lots of older people, especially postmenopausal women, take these drugs, called bisphosphonates. They range in cost from $100 for a three-month supply of the generic version of Merck
