Eli Lilly and Company and its Japanese marketing partner Chugai Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd., announced that Evista (raloxifene HCl) is now available in Japan for the treatment of osteoporosis in postmenopausal women.

Evista is also now available throughout China and is the first selective estrogen receptor modulator (SERM) on the market for the treatment of osteoporosis in postmenopausal women in both Japan and China. SERMS bind to estrogen receptors in cells, leading to a reduction in the resorption - breakdown - of bone and decreasing overall bone turnover. Availability of this medication represents a critical milestone in Lilly's commitment to the treatment of osteoporosis, as Asian women throughout the world are at an increased risk for developing the disease. Evista is approved in more than 90 countries and has been prescribed to over 10 million women worldwide.

Osteoporosis is a common disease that afflicts more than 150 million people around the world, including up to 50 per cent of postmenopausal women. In China, more than 90 million people have the disease - over 7 per cent of that nation's population. One study of elderly women in Hong Kong found that 30 per cent of the women already had one or more osteoporotic vertebral fractures. In Japan, more than 10 million people currently suffer from osteoporosis. That number is expected to soar in the coming decades as the nation's population grows to one in four people age 65 or older by the year 2020.

"Asian women often have small frames, one of the risk factors for osteoporosis which makes them a high risk population," said Per Cantor, medical director, Eli Lilly and Company. "In addition, the populations of Japan and China are aging rapidly compared with the rest of the world. In Japan, a woman's life expectancy now exceeds 80 years, with 30 of those years past menopause. So identifying and treating osteoporosis is critical to the quality of life in those affected by the disease."

Despite the fact that osteoporosis is responsible for a large number of the fractures so common in older adults - and a negative cascade of health problems that include chronic pain, height loss, limited mobility, incapacity and even death - it is also one of the body's quietest and most underestimated maladies. Often, the skeletal disease weakens bones so gradually that there are no symptoms or warning signs until it is well advanced. When there are warning signs, many people dismiss them as nothing more than a "tired back" or "aching back."

The Japan Osteoporosis Foundation reported that although postmenopausal Japanese women are highly familiar with the disease, only about half of osteoporosis patients consider the disease to be serious. Many Japanese women needing treatment do not seek out their physicians for help, thinking that the disease can be prevented through lifestyle and diet changes. Compounding the problem is the fact that patients in Japan -and in China - are unlikely to get the treatment they need. Less than 10 per cent of people in China and 20 percent of the people in Japan with osteoporosis are receiving treatment.

"It doesn't necessarily take a major trauma to cause an osteoporotic fracture, which is a major part of the problem," said Cantor. "Any common activity such as picking up a bag of groceries, vacuum cleaning, doing the dishes or embracing a child, can cause a fracture in places such as the spine or ribs. And even if we're feeling uncomfortable, most of us find it hard to believe that these kinds of movements could cause an injury serious enough to merit a trip to the doctor or hospital."