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Biotech / Medical : Ligand (LGND) Breakout! -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Andrew H who wrote (13108)	1/9/1998 9:33:00 AM
From: Henry Niman	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 32384

Evista went on sale today: Claudine Chamberlain ABCNEWS.com Jan. 8 - The average woman is equally likely to fracture a hip-an injury that could leave her disabled, deformed or even dead-as she is to develop breast, uterine or ovarian cancer. But many women shy away from drugs that could help fortify their brittle bones, because they're worried about cancer. That's why such a buzz has built up around the drug raloxifene, which hit pharmacy shelves today. Manufactured by Eli Lilly and Co. under the brand name Evista, the drug was shown in clinical trials to prevent osteoporosis without increasing the risk of breast cancer. And that has phones ringing off the hook at many doctor's offices and clinics. Evista's price tag is $1.98 for every 60-milligram tablet. You take one tablet daily. Dr. Nelson Watts, head of the osteoporosis program at Emory University in Atlanta, wrote his first prescription for the drug last week and has written several more since then, in anticipation of the January arrival. An Emotional Issue "The breast cancer issue is an emotional one," he says. "Many women are at high risk, and many others are anxious about it. This gives them a choice that eliminates the breast cancer issue." But "eliminates" probably isn't the word Dr. Gail A. Greendale, research director for the Iris Cantor-UCLA Women's Health Center, would choose. She says that so far raloxifene has only been shown not to stimulate breast tissue. That's not the same as saying it won't cause breast cancer. "That's been misinterpreted into an assumption that this is a drug free of breast-cancer risk," she says. "That is a very large leap of faith." Breast cancer takes a long time to develop, so to know for sure that the drug wouldn't cause breast cancer, you'd have to give it to large numbers of women over several years. Clinical trials of raloxifene lasted 2 1/2 years, and further studies are ongoing. Who Should Get It Greendale does expect to prescribe raloxifene to certain patients-with a full explanation that there are no guarantees. The most likely candidates will be women whose mothers had breast cancer, or who have already had biopsies themselves. These women wouldn't be candidates for estrogen-replacement therapy, the gold-standard treatment for post-menopausal women whose bones are thinning. Although the link is not conclusive, some studies have shown that estrogen-replacement therapy may increase breast cancer risk. Menopause reduces a woman's level of estrogen, a hormone that protects naturally against bone thinning. A woman can lose up to 20 percent of her bone mass just in the first five to seven years of menopause. Roughly 18 million Americans, mostly women, have low bone mass. Another 10 million have osteoporosis, or a bone mass loss of 25 percent or more. Raloxifene seems to mimic estrogen's effects on bone density without affecting breast and uterine tissue like estrogen does. Some have labeled it a "designer estrogen." A spokeswoman for Eli Lilly says there are no immediate plans to develop a consumer-targeted advertising campaign for Evista, but that such marketing was likely in the future.