No new osteoporosis drugs expected for ‘many years’
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It will be “many years” before any new pharmacologic osteoporosis therapies are approved, as there are currently no new drugs in phase 2 or 3 development, according to a speaker at the 2021 Congress of Clinical Rheumatology-East meeting.
“We are left with what we have, because there are no new drugs that have been approved since 2019, and there are no drugs in clinical development at the moment, at least in phase 2 or phase 3,” Michael McClung, MD, founding director of the Oregon Osteoporosis Center, in Portland, told attendees at the meeting. “So, it will be many years before we have any new pharmacologic treatment for osteoporosis. What we’re struggling to do is to use what we have more optimally.”
However, despite this lack of recent pharmacologic developments, there have been some advancements in researchers’ understanding of the disease, McClung added. The important concepts that have emerged over the past year include data suggesting that recent fractures imply very high or imminent future fracture risk, and that osteoporosis is not curable and will require lifelong management.
“Short-term therapy and then stopping for 5 years isn’t the strategy,” McClung said.
Lastly, recent data has suggested that on-treatment bone mineral density correlates with current fracture risk, giving providers a useful clinical target, he added.
However, these developments, although notable, “pale in comparison” to what McClung described as the most pressing problem currently facing osteoporosis management: The apparent lack of treatment among patients with the disease.
“All of these are interesting, but pale in comparison with the major issue in osteoporosis, which is the very wide, and widening, treatment gap,” he said. “The disinterest among patients and many primary care physicians in managing osteoporosis is disheartening. That we’re not taking advantage of all of the gains and knowledge that we have acquired over the last number of years.”
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McClung MR. What’s New in Osteoporosis. Presented at: Congress of Clinical Rheumatology-East annual symposium; August 12-15, 2021 (hybrid meeting).
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