Romosozumab signif increases bone mineral density and bone content compared with teriparatide

Sclerostin inhibition offers promising new approach to treatment of post-menopausal osteoporosis

2014-06-11

(Press-News.org) A new study presented today at the European League Against Rheumatism Annual Congress (EULAR 2014) shows that in postmenopausal women with low bone mass, romosozumab significantly increased bone mineral density and bone content in both the spine and hip compared to baseline, and also compared with the commonly prescribed anabolic agent teriparatide and placebo.1

Romosozumab, administered subcutaneously at monthly intervals over a period of 12 months, resulted in gains in both the trabecular* and cortical† compartments of the spine and hip regions, with important differences between romosozumab and teriparatide observed depending on the skeletal location.

"These impressive results support the continued clinical investigation of romosozumab as a potential treatment for postmenopausal women with osteoporosis with established bone mineral density deficit who are at increased risk of fracture," said lead investigator Professor Harry K. Genant of the University of California San Francisco, and a Co-founder of Synarc, Inc. the world's largest imaging core lab dedicated to clinical trials.

"A large phase III clinical trial program is underway, evaluating romosozumab against both placebo and an active comparator in more than 10,000 women with postmenopausal osteoporosis to evaluate its potential to prevent osteoporotic fractures, and to confirm its safety for long-term use," Professor Genant added.

In the lumbar spine, treatment with romosozumab and teriparatide achieved similar and significant gains from baseline in trabecular bone mineral density +18.3% vs. +20.1% respectively p END

ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

Biosimilar CT-P13 matches infliximab in improving ankylosing spondylitis disease activity

2014-06-11

New data presented today at the European League Against Rheumatism Annual Congress (EULAR 2014) show that the newly-approved infliximab biosimilar CT-P13 achieves statistically similar improvements in disease activity, disability and mobility in patients with Ankylosing Spondylitis (AS) compared to its original reference product infliximab (INX).1 CT-P13 is the world's first biosimilar monoclonal antibody to receive a positive opinion from an advanced and developed nations' regulatory body. According to Dr Won Park, Inha University Hospital, Korea, and lead investigator ...

New patient empowerment and educational initiatives unveiled at EULAR 2014

2014-06-11

Five different presentations at the European League Against Rheumatism Annual Congress (EULAR 2014) have introduced new patient empowerment and educational initiatives, which are predicted to bring significant benefits to the many thousands of patients worldwide who suffer from a rheumatic disease. These initiatives include: A new model of patient care involving self-monitoring and patient initiated follow-up1 An online learning resource to prepare patients and carers to actively engage in research, guideline development, advocacy and media activities2 A new patient ...

EULAR driving research and innovation in rheumatic and RMDs in Europe

2014-06-11

The European League Against Rheumatism (EULAR) has announced today at its Annual Congress major successes in driving the public agenda for addressing the escalating burden of RMDs in Europe. These advances include: Recognition for Rheumatic and Musculoskeletal Diseases (RMDs) from major European Commission research initiative, Horizon 2020 'FOREUM', Foundation for Research in Rheumatology, grants research funding for four osteoarthritis projects in its first year. "It is with great satisfaction that we have seen a progressive dedication of EU research funds for RMDs ...

Tendon stimulation the key to repair in 'tennis elbow'

2014-06-11

New data presented today at the European League Against Rheumatism Annual Congress (EULAR 2014) show that ultrasound-guided injections of growth factors-containing platelet-rich plasma (PRP) are no more effective in treating recently developed epicondylitis than injections of saline.1 Lead researcher, Patrick Le Goux of the Hôpitaux Universitaires Paris Ile-de-France Ouest, France, commented, "while PRP injections were shown to have no inherent benefit in the treatment of epicondylitis, what is exciting is that pain scores in both treatment groups decreased significantly ...

Higher disease activity scores in obese RA patients

2014-06-11

A new study presented today at the European League Against Rheumatism Annual Congress (EULAR 2014) showed that obese patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) have higher DAS (disease activity) scores than non-obese patients, irrespective of their disease stage.1 With clinical remission as the ultimate therapeutic goal in RA,2 several studies have demonstrated that treatment to target – a treatment approach guided by its impact on reducing DAS scores – is more effective in lowering disease activity and, ultimately, reaching remission than usual care.3-7 Because obese patients ...

Newly discovered paddle prints show how ancient sea reptiles swam

2014-06-11

Trackways formed on an ancient seabed have shed new light on how nothosaurs, ancient marine reptiles that lived during the age of the dinosaurs, propelled themselves through water. The evidence is described by a team from Bristol and China in Nature Communications today. During the Mesozoic, 252-66 million years ago, the seas were ruled by a variety of marine reptiles. One of the earliest groups were the nothosaurs, voracious semi-aquatic hunters with elongate bodies and paddle-like limbs. They were the top predators of the Triassic coasts, some 245 million years ago. Their ...

Forest loss starves fish

2014-06-11

Debris from forests that washes into freshwater lakes supplements the diets of microscopic zooplankton and the fish that feed off them – creating larger and stronger fish, new research shows. The researchers warn that, as forests are eroded through human activities such as logging, the impacts will be felt in aquatic as well as terrestrial food chains. In fact, the study was conducted at a Canadian lake chosen because it had suffered ecological disaster during the mid-20th century: acid rain as a result of the local nickel smelting industry. Despite moves to reduce ...

Sports teams may lose out from having 'too much talent'

2014-06-11

As the FIFA World Cup kicks off and the NBA finals "heat" up, new research suggests that there is such a thing as having too much talent on a sports team. The research indicates that, after a certain point, the addition of more superstar talent to a team can actually be detrimental, resulting in poorer team performance. The findings are forthcoming in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science. The research, led by INSEAD Professor Roderick Swaab, showed that the presence of too many individuals with top talent can undermine players' ...

Nearby satellite galaxies don't fit standard model

2014-06-11

Satellite dwarf galaxies at the edges of the Milky Way and neighboring Andromeda defy the accepted model of galaxy formation, and recent attempts to pigeon-hole them into the model are flawed, an international team of scientists reports. The mismatch raises questions about the accuracy of the standard model of cosmology, which is the widely accepted paradigm for the origin and evolution of the universe, the astrophysicists say. A preprint of the research paper, accepted for publication by the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, is online at http://arxiv.org/abs/1406.1799. The ...

Map of universe questioned; dwarf galaxies don't fit standard model

2014-06-11

Dwarf galaxies that orbit the Milky Way and the Andromeda galaxies defy the accepted model of galaxy formation, and recent attempts to wedge them into the model are flawed, reports an international team of astrophysicists. David Merritt, professor of astrophysics at Rochester Institute of Technology, co-authored "Co-orbiting satellite galaxy structures are still in conflict with the distribution of primordial dwarf galaxies," to be published in an upcoming issue of Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. A pre-print of the paper is available online at http://arxiv.org/abs/1406.1799. The ...

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:

The American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation announce new research fellowship in malaria genomics in honor of professor Dominic Kwiatkowski