Fda Approves Nasal Spray For Osteoporosis

The Food and Drug Administration has approved an easier way for some women with crippling osteoporosis to take their medicine.

Osteoporosis afflicts 25 million Americans, most of them postmenopausal women. It causes the bones to become brittle and break easily, resulting in 1.5 million fractures and 50,000 deaths a year.

The best treatment is the hormone estrogen, but many women refuse to take it because of side effects, including a possible risk of certain cancers. For those women, the only alternative has been injections of another hormone, calcitonin derived from salmon.

The FDA on Friday approved a version of that calcitonin in an easierto-use nasal spray, called Miacalcin.