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| |  Artificial Thyroid Hormone Similar in Efficacy to Teriparatide Carries Increased Incidence of Hypercalcaemia: Presented at ASBMR By John Otrompke DENVER -- September 17, 2009 -- The effects of artificial hormone 1-84-PTH appear to be identical to those of teriparatide, except that the former drug may carry a higher risk of hypercalcaemia in certain circumstances, researchers stated here at the 31st Annual Meeting of the American Society for Bone and Mineral Research (ASBMR). "This is a synthetically made drug, which is completely identical to a calcium-regulating hormone we make ourselves," said Lars Hyldstrup, MD, Hvidovre Hospital, Copenhagen, Denmark, speaking here at a poster presentation on September 14. The study was conducted in patients voluntarily reported to a national database created in Denmark when teriparatide became available there in 2003. In 2006, when 1-84-PTH also became available, those patients were also added to the database. To date, 1,035 patients from 17 clinics have been included, 907 of whom had been treated with teriparatide, and 128 with 1-84-PTH. Dr. Hyldstrup and colleagues compared patients treated with teriparatide and 1-84 PTH. The effect of the 2 drugs appeared to be very similar, he noted. When measured in terms of lumbar-spine bone mineral density, the drugs performed nearly identically in both women and men. Measured at the total hip, men did slightly better on 1-84-PTH, whereas women experienced slightly better outcomes with teriparatide. "In Europe, these are 2 competing drugs, and this trial demonstrates that their effects are identical," Dr. Hyldstrup concluded. "There is a rare disease, hypoparathyroidism, experienced by much less than 1% of the population, where the body is not able to produce this hormone. These patients benefit from having the hormone given as an injection," he added. In both groups, side effects (mainly nausea and fatigue) were common, but only in the first 6 months, said Dr. Hyldstrup. Initially, about 20% of the patients on 1-84-PTH experienced hypercalcaemia, compared with about 5% in the teriparatide arm. "Normally, [the] function [of 1-84-PTH] is to maintain the calcium at the correct level in the body, but in some cases it drove the calcium level too high," explained Dr. Hyldstrup. To combat this problem, the calcium supplement dose was reduced by half. Other side effects were also more common in those receiving 1-84-PTH in the first 6 months, with about 45% of patients in the group receiving 1-84-PTH experiencing side effects, compared with about 22% of the group receiving teriparatide. After the first 6 months, however, the trend decreased and then reversed itself. Funding for this study was provided by Nycomed. [Presentation title: Comparison of Teriparatide and 1-84-PTH. Results From a National Database Initiative. Abstract MO0334]
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