Wyeth Pharmaceuticals, a division of Wyeth, announced findings from a placebo-controlled phase-3 study of bazedoxifene 20 mg extended to five years, which indicated a significant reduction versus placebo in new vertebral fractures in postmenopausal women with osteoporosis. These and other data were presented at the American Society for Bone and Mineral Research (ASBMR) Annual Meeting in Denver, Colo. Bazedoxifene, a selective estrogen receptor modulator (SERM), is under clinical investigation for the prevention and treatment of postmenopausal osteoporosis.

"These new data are important in that they suggest the reduction in vertebral fracture risk with bazedoxifene seen at five years is comparable to that seen at three years," said Stuart Silverman, clinical professor of Medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles and Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, and the study's lead investigator.

Wyeth is pursuing regulatory approval of bazedoxifene for the prevention and treatment of postmenopausal osteoporosis in the United States and other countries worldwide.