The Epoch Times Anti-osteoporosis bone drugs such as Fosamax, Boniva, and Prolia have become a billion-dollar market for drugmakers thanks to aggressive marketing.
To sell its âbisphosphonateâ bone drug Fosamax, Merck began marketing the dangers of osteoporosis in hopes of reaching a marketâfar beyond ailing old ladiesâ according to Fortune magazine. It hired an operative to create the âBone Measurement Instituteâ to establish the ârisk of osteoporosis,â as a health epidemic and plant bone scan machines in medical offices across the countryâa gambit that made Merck $280 million from Fosamaxâs first-year sales. Merckâs âBone Measurement Instituteâ then lobbied, with Merck-funded groups, to get Medicare to cover bone scans through the Bone Mass Measurement Act…
