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Spring Survey 2012 Results

A New Medicine

Program: Keeping Your Bones Strong for Life
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Andrew Schorr:

Just one quick question.  I know we could do a whole program on this.  When there’s a new drug added, makes is big splash in the newspaper and on TV and you don’t know where to put it, so we mentioned there was yet a new drug approved a week or so ago, where does that fit in, this Prolia? 

Dr. Carkin:

This is Julie.  I’ll take that one.  I think that it’s always exciting to have new drugs so Prolia, the name for that is denosumab, and it’s an injectable medicine under the skin that will be given twice a year, and it’s not something you will do at home.  You would go and get it at your doctor’s office or your care provider’s office.  It’s a simple medication to take. 

It works in that same category as all of the antiresorptive agents, so it’s not a bone forming agent like the Forteo, which is teriparatide.  It’s not a bone-forming agent, it’s an antiresorptive agent, but what’s nice about it is that it’s the first biologic agent.  So it’s not really a chemical.  It is more in the--like some of the rheumatoid arthritis fancy medicines where it is a biologic agent that interrupts bone turnover and losing bone.  We’re all very excited about having another option because there are people who cannot tolerate bisphosphonates for different reasons, so they’re not a candidate for those. 

But whenever there’s a new medicine, it’s exciting to have another option, but it’s also good to be a little bit cautious and let--step back and kind of watch the medicine for a little while, make sure that there’s no surprises, make sure it’s--we’re all hoping it’s--it’s preliminary data and the data that got its FDA approval is excellent, but when it’s in general use make sure that there’s nothing that we didn’t see in the study phase.  And in general it probably will not be a first-line agent.  It will be an agent where if the longer studied drugs like the Fosamax or Actonel, even Reclast, if a person cannot take those drugs or if they failed those drugs, then the Prolia, the denosumab would be a consideration for somebody like that.

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