US FDA panel: Let anti-NGF studies move forward, despite 'severe' joint risks

After hearing pleas from patients and experts that the available therapies to treat severe pain are inadequate, advisers to the US FDA said they were not ready to slam the door on an experimental class of drugs, known as anti-nerve growth factors (anti-NGFs), which have been linked to serious adverse effects, including bone and joint deterioration leading to joint-replacement surgery.

At a 12 March hearing, the FDA's Arthritis Drugs Committee unanimously recommended that, based on the risk-benefit profile for anti-NGFs,...