People in Wales are now benefitting from new osteoporosis treatment

In April, the Royal Osteoporosis Society (ROS) welcomed the decision by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) to recommend the first new osteoporosis drug treatment of its kind for over a decade in England and Wales. Health professionals in Scotland and Northern Ireland have been able to prescribe romosozumab for their patients prior to this following European Medicines Agency approval in 2019. 

Now the first patients are receiving romosozumab in Wales, offering new hope for reduced fracture risk for those who are unable to take other medications or self-administer daily injections. 

Dr Abhaya Gupta, Consultant Physician Glangwili hospital, Carmarthen, is amongst the first to use the treatment for his patients at Hywel Dda University Health Board. He said:  

“The development and availability of this new drug is very exciting news for clinicians like myself. It gives us another option to treat many more eligible women with osteoporosis.” 

Romosozumab, which has been shown to be highly effective in preventing fractures in postmenopausal women with severe osteoporosis, is one of only two treatments that help to promote bone formation, and the first to reduce bone loss at the same time. Romosozumab is only licensed for use in women in the UK. This means that if you're a man with osteoporosis, you're very unlikely to be offered romosozumab.

The ROS was influential in supporting the NICE decision and has worked with the National Osteoporosis Guidance Group (NOGG) to publish some resources for healthcare professionals prescribing romosozumab. These include a consensus statement on the use of romosozumab and a set of case studies and are intended to support clinicians to understand the patients who would be eligible and benefit most from treatment with romosozumab. 

For more information on romosozumab, visit: https://theros.org.uk/information-and-support/osteoporosis/treatment/romosozumab-evenity/ 

To read the consensus statement, visit: https://strwebprdmedia.blob.core.windows.net/media/0h3jlog5/nogg-ros-romosozumab-statement-may-2022.pdf