Monthly tablets help women persist longer with osteoporosis drugs

The Roche-supported study, named PERSIST, involved 103 primary care centers across the UK, with 1,076 women each agreeing to participate for a six-month period.

In the study, 542 women were prescribed a single 70mg dose of alendronate (marketed by Merck as Fosamax) once a week and the remainder received a single monthly 150mg dose of ibandronate (marketed as Boniva by Roche and GlaxoSmithKline) and were enrolled in a free patient support program designed to complement the drug.

The monthly ibandronate group received a welcome pack providing basic information about osteoporosis and a monthly reminder call from a trained nurse one to three days before the dose was due. The nurses also used the opportunity to confirm dosing instructions, provide further information about osteoporosis and stress the importance of adhering to the treatment regime.

835 women completed the study, leaving 440 in the monthly ibandronate group and 395 in the weekly alendronate group. Of these, just under 57% of patients receiving monthly ibandronate tablets, together with patient support, were taking the medication after six months. The persistence rate for patients on weekly alendronate tablets was 39%.

“Getting patients to continue taking prescribed medication is a major problem for healthcare professionals” says lead author Dr Alun Cooper, a family doctor from the Bridge Medical Centre in Crawley, UK. “Our study clearly shows that women who were prescribed monthly doses of ibandronate, and enrolled on a patient support program, were much more likely to continue taking their medication than those on weekly doses of alendronate.”