Intended for healthcare professionals

Letters Calcium and cardiovascular risk

What is the appropriate MHRA regulatory response to calcium’s increased cardiovascular risk?

BMJ 2013; 346 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.f3413 (Published 28 May 2013) Cite this as: BMJ 2013;346:f3413
  1. Mark J Bolland, senior research fellow1,
  2. Alison Avenell, clinical research fellow2,
  3. Andrew Grey, associate professor1,
  4. Ian R Reid, distinguished professor1
  1. 1Department of Medicine, University of Auckland, Private Bag 92 019, Auckland 1142, New Zealand
  2. 2Health Services Research Unit, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen AB25 2ZD, UK
  1. m.bolland{at}auckland.ac.nz

Concern has been expressed repeatedly in recent years about inadequate oversight by regulatory authorities of drugs and medical devices. Recently, the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) recommended restricting the prescription of strontium ranelate for osteoporosis.1 This was because strontium increased the risk of myocardial infarction (relative risk 1.6, 95% CI 1.07 to 2.38), although it did not increase mortality, in a pooled …

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