FDA OKs Nasal-Spray Hormone Treatment for Osteoporosis

The Food and Drug Administration has approved an easier way for some women with osteoporosis to take their medicine.

The best treatment is the hormone estrogen, but many women suffer side effects, including a possibly higher risk of certain cancers. For those women, the only alternative has been injections of the hormone calcitonin, which is derived from salmon. The FDA recently approved a version of calcitonin in an easier-to-use nasal spray, called Miacalcin. The spray was approved as a treatment for bone brittleness in estrogen-averse women who are more than five years past menopause. It must be taken with adequate amounts of calcium and vitamin D to work properly, said the manufacturer, Sandoz Pharmaceutical Corp. Clinical trials show that daily use of the spray increased the bone mass of patients’ spines. But the trials did not show increased bone in the hip, a major spot for osteoporosis fractures, the FDA cautioned. A more groundbreaking drug, Merck & Co.’s Fosamax, is poised to become the nation’s first non-hormonal treatment for osteoporosis, preventing bone loss by binding to the cells that attack bone. The spray’s side effects include nasal irritation. The FDA recommended that patients have routine nasal exams.