Merck & Co defends Fosamax over safety claims
This article was originally published in Scrip
Executive Summary
Merck and Co's leading oral bisphosphonate for the treatment of osteoporosis, Fosamax (alendronate), has been linked to incidents of oesophageal cancer and jaw necrosis in two separate studies published in the New England Journal of Medicineand the Journal of the American Dental Association (JADA), respectively, but Merck hasvigorously defended the drug's safety profile, which had sales of $3.1 billion in 2007 before its patent expired last year.