Drug Proves Effective Against Paget’s Disease

A single dose of the Novartis drug Zometa halted bone deterioration and abnormal bone growth for at least a year in about 95% of patients with Paget’s disease, according to an international study published Thursday in the New England Journal of Medicine.

“I’m a little reluctant to say ‘cure,’ ” said Dr. Paul Miller of the Colorado Center for Bone Research in Lakewood, Colo., a leader of the test at 76 medical centers in 10 countries.

But Zometa produced a “higher response, faster response and a longer duration of remission” in tests against daily treatments of Procter & Gamble Pharmaceuticals’ Actonel, he said.

Paget’s appears when the body breaks down its bones faster than normal and new bone doesn’t replace it properly.

The condition is found in about 2% of Americans older than 60 and 6% to 7% of the elderly in Western Europe. It can be very painful and it increases the risk of fractures.

The study found that a single infusion of zoledronic acid, the generic name of Zometa, produced six months of improvement in 96% of the 176 people tested, whereas 74% of those receiving risedronate (Actonel) showed a similar improvement.

And whereas the effects of risedronate wore off in one-quarter of the volunteers after one year, that happened in less than 1% of the zoledronic acid recipients.

The drug can cause flu-like symptoms such as mild fever and muscle aches, but they typically disappear after four days, said the researchers, led by Dr. Ian R. Reid of the University of Auckland in New Zealand.

Zoledronic acid is under review by the Food and Drug Administration as a treatment for Paget’s. It has been approved for that use in Canada and 27 European countries.