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A new study lending evidence to the link between bisphosphonates and femur fractures may impact the growing litigation of Fosamax femur fracture lawsuits filed over the osteoporosis drug. According to a Mar. 1 report from News-Medical.net, U.S. scientists who conducted new research published in the Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery counted 362 reports of non-healing femur fractures in the U.S. Food and Drug Agency Adverse Event Reporting System (FAERS)’s database. The ratio for the use of bisphosphonates like Fosamax and these fractures was 4.51. 26 percent of atypical femoral fractures were non-healing, the study showed, which may suggest that “some of the nonhealing femoral fractures in the FAERS database could well be atypical femoral fractures,” researchers said. It is noteworthy to add that femur fractures are one of the side effects of Fosamax and a rising number of claims filed over the drug, a bisphosphonate, have alleged this injury stemming from the medication. Given the fact that the femur is one of the strongest bones in the body and thus, the most difficult to break, a femoral fracture is also a particularly unusual injury. As of April 2013, many of the 3,300 Fosamax femur fracture lawsuits were pending in a multidistrict litigation underway in the U.S. District Court, District of New Jersey. The first federal MDL handling Fosamax femur fracture lawsuits was created in November 2011 to consolidate the 1,500 claims that had been filed by patients who claim to have experienced osteonecrosis of the jaw (ONJ), one of the other alleged side effects of Fosamax. The Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery’s research concluded with a call to create an international registry of femur fractures to keep track of this injury’s likelihood of occurring in patients who regularly take bisphosphonates like Fosamax. Scientists also suggested that further investigation of underlying genetic susceptibility of femoral fractures be launched. “A better understanding of the mechanisms leading to these atypical femoral fractures may enable us to develop prediction rules for this uncommon adverse drug reaction and to stratify and target our care accordingly,” scientists said in the article. In Fosamax femur fracture lawsuit news, it was reported by Bloomberg.com on May 1st that jurors in the second trial for claims related to the bone-loss drug ruled in favor of its manufacturer, Merck & Co. The company released a statement about the verdict, which was reached in New Jersey federal court in Trenton, but could not be immediately confirmed in court documents.
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