Greg Monforton and Partners provides the latest news on the Fosamax side effects and related litigation.

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Fosamax: The Hiding of a Public Hazard
Law.com | October 5, 2006

In September 1995, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved Merck's compound alendronate for various uses, including the treatment of osteoporosis and Paget's Disease. Alendronate is marketed by Merck as Fosamax. It is one of Merck's biggest sellers, with approximately $3.5 billion per year in sales.

Since Fosamax was released, there have been a significant number of reports of osteonecrosis of the jaw ("ONJ") among users of Fosamax. On Aug. 25, 2004, the FDA posted its Office of Drug Safety Post-Marketing Safety Review on bisphosphonates, including those used in chemotherapy and those contained in Fosamax. This was an epidemiologic review of the FDA adverse events database conducted by the FDA's Division of Drug Risk Evaluation. As a result of the review, the FDA observed that there was a risk of ONJ that was not confined to bisphosphonates used for chemotherapy. The FDA's review indicated that the
ONJ was a class effect, which specifically extended to the oral bisphosphonate, Fosamax.

Fosamax, Merck's Other Drug Problem
CNN | May 9, 2006

Merck, already in a long fight against thousands of Vioxx lawsuits, will soon face a two-front war, as plaintiffs begin to file suit over a different drug: Fosamax.

Merck, the No. 2 U.S. drugmaker, will soon face a federal court suit from a Naples, Florida., woman who blames the osteoporosis treatment for the necrosis that rotted her mouth and exposed bone in her jaw. Linda Secrest, 60, who took Fosamax for six years, filed the suit April 10 in Fort Myers, Florida. She accuses Merck of withholding information about the drug's health risks.

Drug Linked to Death of Jawbone
USA Today | March 13, 2005

Over a three-year period, the jaws of dozens of patients who had undergone oral surgery at his hospital had failed to heal properly. Part of the jawbone had died and become exposed.

"We never saw this before in the jaw" except in patients who had received radiation therapy to that part of the face, says Ruggiero, chief of oral and maxillofacial surgery at Long Island Jewish Medical Center. "It just never existed."

Further investigation revealed one common thread: All of the patients had been treated with at least one of a class of drugs called bisphosphonates.

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