FDA panel OKs testing of pain drugs linked to bone loss

An advisory panel for the Food and Drug Administration voted today to allow testing to resume for an experimental class of pain drugs for osteoarthritis.

Testing of the drugs, known as anti-nerve growth factor (anti-NGF) drugs, was halted by the FDA in 2010 and early 2011 after some patients taking them experienced what appeared to be the death of bone tissue in the joints, and required joint replacements.

Today members of the panel cited the need for new pain medications for people not helped by current drugs as a contributing factor in their decision. The vote was unanimous.

Three drugs companies — Pfizer, Johnson & Johnson and Regeneron Pharmaceuticals — were testing anti-NGF drugs before the trials were stopped. Pfizer's drug, tanezumab, was the farthest along in trials. In addition to osteoarthritis — a form of arthritis in which the cartilage in a joint breaks down, leading to bone rubbing on bone — companies were also testing the drugs for other pain conditions, including chronic lower back pain, and nerve pain in diabetes patients.

Anti-NGF drugs block a protein called nerve growth factor, which is important for the development and survival of certain nerve cells also thought to cause sensitivity to pain in certain conditions.

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