[Ibandronate].

Ibandronate is a potent nitrogen-containing bisphosphonate and is a convenient therapeutic drug for osteoporosis because ibandronate can be administrated once a month or at much longer interval by orally or intravenously (bolus injection). In BONE study, that is a large-scale pivotal study on fracture with osteoporosis patients, efficacy to prevent the incidence of new vertebral fracture was shown in both regimen of 2.5 mg daily and 20 mg intermittent oral administration. Then the clinical development by new intermittent dosing method was accelerated, aiming at the improvement of compliance/adherence which is one of the issues when the bisphosphonates are administered orally. Both monthly oral and quarterly intravenous bolus injectable formulations of ibandronate for osteoporosis already have been launched in the U.S., EU and other countries. In parallel, both formulations for osteoporosis have being also developed in Japan. We expect ibandronate will provide a new option for the treatment of osteoporosis in Japan.