"An experimental drug appears to reduce the risk of bone fractures in postmenopausal women with osteoporosis better than a placebo and the currently available drug a new study finds.  In this phase  trial funded by the drugs maker Radius Health fewer women on the injectable drug abaloparatide had spine fractures . percent than women receiving a placebo . percent and slightly fewer than those taking a similar injectable drug teriparatide Forteo . percent. If this gets approved and there is no reason to think it wont this will be the second drug available for the treatment of highrisk osteoporosis said lead researcher Dr. Paul Miller of the Colorado Center for Bone Research. Forteo has been in use for the past  years he said. Abaloparatide works differently from Forteo and improves bone density more than Forteo Miller said. Women taking abaloparatide also had fewer other types of fractures . percent than those who got a placebo . percent and slightly fewer than those on Forteo . percent the researchers found. Miller said many spine fractures are painless. Patients are often unaware they have happened until a doctor measures their height and finds they are up to an inch shorter than before he said. Abaloparatide and Forteo are synthetic peptides that help grow and strengthen bone Miller said.  Along with building bone density they are the only ones that increase bone quality he said. Bone quality is an important aspect of bone strength  the ability to withstand a break Miller said. He predicts that when abaloparatide is on the market it will compete with Forteo driving down the price of both drugs. I am hoping that having a second drug available that it will help reduce the cost he said. Forteo costs about  a month if you dont have insurance. Even if a patient is insured monthly copays can range from  to . Forteo is covered by Medicare Miller said.  The report was published Aug.  in the Journal of the American Medical Association. A study based on  U.S. Census data estimated that more than  million women between the ages of  and  have osteoporosis. A yearold woman has a  percent lifetime risk of fracture due to low bone density. For the study Miller and colleagues randomly assigned nearly  postmenopausal women with osteoporosis to receive daily injections of abaloparatide Forteo or a placebo for  months. Their average age was . Among the nearly  women who completed the trial increases in bone mineral density were greater with abaloparatide than placebo the researchers found. In addition fewer cases of hypercalcemia abnormally high levels of calcium in the blood occurred among women taking abaloparatide  percent than Forteo  percent. Hypercalcemia can weaken bones cause kidney stones and interfere with heart and brain function. There were no differences among the groups in other serious side effects such as nausea and heart palpations Miller said. Dr. Caroline Messer director of the Center for Pituitary and Neuroendocrine Disorders at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City is eager for further research. There needs to be a large headtohead trial between Forteo and abaloparatide she said to really see which drug is better.  Everybody is going to want to know if this is inferior or superior to Forteo she said adding that this is an early study. It shows more bone building and fewer fractures than Forteo but whether it will replace that drug is still up in the air. An editorial accompanying the study said which drug is selected may be less important than identifying and starting an approved treatment. The bar is high for any preventive treatment  in the efforts to prevent a fracture that may or may not ever occur prescribers do not want to prescribe a therapy that causes a new problem. The way forward for fracture prevention involves not only the development of better therapies . . . and easier delivery systems but also improved adoption of existing osteoporosis therapies for patients with prior fractures and minimization of adverse effects particularly those associated with longterm use the editorial said. The editorial was cowritten by Dr. Anne Cappola of the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania Philadelphia associate editor of JAMA and Dr. Dolores Shoback of the University of California San Francisco. More information To learn more about osteoporosis visit the American College of Rheumatology http SOURCES Paul Miller M.D. Colorado Center for Bone Research Lakewood Colo. Caroline Messer M.D. director Center for Pituitary and Neuroendocrine Disorders Lenox Hill Hospital New York City Aug.   Journal of the American Medical Association"