JAMA Study Unearths Fosamax Dangers
Merck & Co., the company responsible for the manufacture of Fosamax, a drug used to treat osteoporosis, is facing some serious allegations from users of the medication. Fosamax was said to cause osteonecrosis of the jaw (ONJ), a condition wherein a part or parts of a person’s jaw bones die due to limited or no blow flow to the jaw, as users of the drug attest. A Fosamax fracture lawsuit may be charged against the pharmaceutical company for these claims.
A study conducted in 2006 was published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) stating that there is no direct link between Fosamax and femur fractures. But it was later discovered that Merck influenced the study by funding, designing and editing the article.
There is a recent study, published last February 2011 in JAMA, that sought to see the connection between biphosphonate drugs, Fosamax being one of them, and bone issues. In the study, which was conducted in Ontario, Canada, from a group of 200,000 female long-term biphosphonate users, 716 of them were discovered to suffer from a Fosamax fracture. The authors then concluded that users are three times more likely to experience bone problems over five years. Merck quickly dismissed the article saying it, “does not believe that the JAMA publication establishes that those patients who take a bisphosphonate for any particular duration are at greater risk” for an atypical fracture.
Fosamax is a drug that is marketed as a “bone builder,” claiming it can help in building up bone mass. But the truth of the matter is that the drug can only harden the bone and when this happens, the bone gets brittle making it conducive for fractures. What’s worse, the side effects these drugs cause are permanent. Even though physicians are finding more ways to treat osteoporosis, it cannnot be denied that the damage has already been done. Fosamax users should be compensated for by Merck. Since there are many people who use Fosamax, an estimated thousands of lawsuits are expected to be filed soon. If you have further concerns regarding the drug and wish to learn more, visit the Fosamax fracture lawsuit information center.