Osteopenia

Osteoporosis is a disease of the bones usually affecting elderly women and causes the bones to become brittle and easily breakable. Since last two years some alarming reports of women on drugs for therapy of this disease have come to notice. These reports show that these drugs intended for therapy may result in rare and serious fractures of their thigh bones where the bones break clean or may splinter. Often these fractures were not associated with any fall or impact. Moreover some of the sufferers are middle aged women in their 50’s who do not have full blown osteoporosis, a condition known as pre-osteoporosis or osteopenia.

Gilead Sciences, Inc. announced Phase II clinical trial results today showing that its investigational fixed-dose single-tablet “Quad” regimen of elvitegravir, GS 9350 (cobicistat) and Truvada® (emtricitabine and tenofovir disoproxil fumarate) for the treatment of HIV infection exhibited antiretroviral activity comparable to that of Atripla® (efavirenz 600 mg/ emtricitabine 200 mg/ tenofovir disoproxil fumarate 300 mg).

Gilead Sciences, Inc. today announced that a Phase II clinical trial of its investigational integrase inhibitor-based, once-daily, fixed-dose “Quad” regimen of elvitegravir, GS 9350 and Truvada® (emtricitabine and tenofovir disoproxil fumarate) for the treatment of HIV-1 infection met its primary objective.

According to a new survey distributed by The North American Menopause Society (NAMS), while 98 percent of women who participated consider bone strength to be an important health concern, nearly half (45 percent) of these women reported that osteoporosis was not addressed during their last routine OB/GYN visit, and more than a quarter (26.4 percent) of women surveyed have never discussed osteoporosis with their OB/GYN.

Decision Resources, one of the world's leading research and advisory firms for pharmaceutical and healthcare issues, finds that the majority of surveyed clinicians say they will use Amgen/GlaxoSmithKline's Prolia as either a second- or third-line therapy for osteoporosis if the drug receives regulatory approval for the indication.

Hospital for Special Surgery today announced the establishment of one of the most comprehensive centers of excellence in the country for the treatment of all nonoperative and operative spine disorders.

Researchers at Johns Hopkins are reporting what is believed to be the first conclusive evidence in men that the long-term ill effects of vitamin D deficiency are amplified by lower levels of the key sex hormone estrogen, but not testosterone.

Ryogen LLC, a genomic start-up company, has been awarded a new patent titled “Isolated Genomic Polynucleotide Fragments from Chromosome 7”.

Today the American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists (AACE) released new medical guidelines for the accurate diagnosis and effective ethical treatment of growth hormone deficiency in affected patients.