This article is more than 5 years old. Information may no longer be current.
Half of patients stop taking popular osteoporosis drugs within 6 months
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts
Almost 50% of patients who are prescribed popular osteoporosis drugs — including alendronate, risedronate and ibandronic acid — discontinue their treatment within 6 months, according to a press release from SDI, a healthcare market insight and analytics firm.
“Drug adherence is an issue that many in the health care industry struggle with, including physicians, pharmacies, and payers. If patients choose to discontinue therapy, they may be at a greater risk for progression of their disease or condition,” said SDI Chief Medical Officer Gregory Hess, MD, MBA, in the press release. “There are financial ramifications as well. Using drug therapy to treat osteoporosis is less expensive than treating a patient with a broken bone because they didn’t adhere to therapy.”
The most popular treatment for osteoporosis, once-weekly alendronate, accounted for almost 24% of osteoporosis prescriptions in the 12 months ending April 2010. Yet SDI found that 49% of alendronate patients had stopped taking the drug 6 months later. At that time, another 3% had switched to a different medication. After 12 months, 61% had stopped taking alendronate.
Patients taking the weekly form of risedronate fared similarly. At 6 months, 54% had stopped taking the therapy. At 12 months, this number rose to 64%. A once-a-month version of risedronate did slightly better at 6 months, with 47% of patients discontinuing therapy. At 12 months, though, a full 63% had stopped taking the medication.
Patients taking the oral form of once-monthly ibandronic acid were most likely to stop taking the drug. At 6 months, 57% had discontinued the therapy, and at 12 months 70% had discontinued.
