It is known as "phossy jaw", and left 19th-century match-makers who handled phosphorus with gangrenous, pus-filled jawbones. Today, hundreds of people are suing drugs giant Merck, claiming they suffered a similar fate after taking its osteoporosis drug Fosamax.
A new paper casts doubt on the link. Athanasios Zavras of Harvard School of Dental Medicine in Boston and his colleagues examined the medical insurance claims of over 700,000 people with osteoporosis or cancer - more than 200,000 of whom had taken Fosamax and related drugs, called bisphosphonates. While those who were given the drugs intravenously had a higher risk of developing inflammatory jaw conditions, the majority - who took them orally - had a reduced risk (Journal of the American Dental Association, vol 139, p 23).
But Tim O'Brien, an attorney in Pensacola, Florida, representing some 500 claimants, says the study diluted evidence for side effects by including ...
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