my personal edition > osteoporosis > news


  E-Mail this DGDispatch to a colleague

DGDispatch

Monthly Ibandronate Dosing as Effective as Daily Regimen in Treating Postmenopausal Osteoporosis: Presented at ASBMR

By Bonnie Darves

SEATTLE, WA -- October 5, 2004 -- A monthly dosing schedule of the oral bisphosphonate ibandronate is as effective as the daily dosing regimen in treating postmenopausal osteoporosis, according to study findings.

After 1 year of treatment with the nitrogen-containing medication, patients who took monthly rather than daily doses, and who were adherent to treatment, had comparable increases in spine and proximal femur bone mineral density (BMD). Patients on the 150 mg monthly regimen may ultimately have better outcomes based on these early data, the researchers found. The study, presented here at the annual meeting of the American Society for Bone and Mineral Research, was one of several reporting 1-year results of the multinational, phase 3 study of 1609 women with osteoporosis.

The study was undertaken to determine whether monthly oral ibandronate dosing would prove as effective as daily regimens, which have notoriously poor adherence because of their strictness and inconvenience.

Over a 2-year period, patients were randomized to receive either the standard daily dose of 2.5 mg or one of three monthly ibandronate doses (single 50 mg doses on two consecutive days, a single daily dose of 100 mg, or a single daily dose of 150 mg). Participants who had a median age of 66 years also took 500 mg daily of calcium and 400 IU of vitamin D.

BMD increases "were found in all patients who took the study drug," said lead researcher Paul D. Miller, MD, medical director of the Colorado Center for Bone Research in Lakewood, Colorado, United States. After 1 year, lumbar spine BMD increased by 3.9% in the daily-regimen cohort, and by 4.1% and 4.9% in the monthly 100 mg and 150 mg groups, respectively. In addition, a significantly greater proportion of patients in the 150 mg cohort achieved decreases in sCTX than those in the daily-regimen cohort (0.500 vs 0.485 in the 2.5 mg daily group).


[Monthly Oral Ibandronate Is at Least as Effective as Oral Daily Ibandronate in Postmenopausal Osteoporosis: 1-Year Results From MOBILE. 10/3 abstract: F408]

E-Mail this DGDispatch to a colleague

To print, use this version