Strontium ranelate 2g granules for oral suspension sachets sugar free
Strontium ranelate, a strontium (II) salt of ranelic acid, is a medication for osteoporosis.
Safety information for pregnancy and breastfeeding
Pregnancy
Breastfeeding
Always consult your doctor or midwife before taking any medicine during pregnancy or while breastfeeding. Source: DrugBank (CC BY-NC 4.0).
Official documents, adverse reaction reporting, and safety monitoring
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Official medicine documents
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Drug safety updates
MHRA alerts for Strontium ranelate
Safety monitoring data
Yellow Card reports
The MHRA Yellow Card scheme collects reports of suspected side effects from healthcare professionals and patients. View the Drug Analysis Profile (iDAP) for real-world adverse reaction data.
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Suspected adverse reactions reported for Strontium ranelate
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Report a side effect
Submit a Yellow Card report to the MHRA
Data from the MHRA Yellow Card scheme. A reported reaction does not necessarily mean the medicine caused it. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
EudraVigilance
The European Medicines Agency (EMA) collects suspected adverse reaction reports from across the EU/EEA through the EudraVigilance system. Search for safety data on this medicine.
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Suspected adverse reactions reported for Strontium ranelate
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EudraVigilance data is published by the European Medicines Agency (EMA). A suspected adverse reaction is not necessarily caused by the medicine.
7 branded products available
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View all licensed products for Strontium ranelate on the MHRA register
Strontium ranelate 2g granules for oral suspension sachets sugar free
WHO defined daily dose (DDD)
2 gram
Not a recommended dose. The DDD is the assumed average maintenance dose per day for a drug used for its main indication in adults. It is a statistical measure used for research and comparison purposes only.
Source: WHO Collaborating Centre for Drug Statistics Methodology, distributed via the NHS dm+d supplementary mapping files (NHSBSA). Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
Therapeutically similar medicines
Similarity is based on WHO Anatomical Therapeutic Chemical (ATC) classification and on a factual NHS dm+d therapeutic-grouping code prefix. Source data: NHS dm+d via TRUD (OGL v3.0), WHO ATC/DDD Index.
NHS prescribing volume and spending trends
Guidelines from the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence
NICE clinical guidance(5)
Denosumab for the prevention of osteoporotic fractures in postmenopausal women (TA204)
Raloxifene and teriparatide for the secondary prevention of osteoporotic fragility fractures in postmenopausal women (TA161)
Raloxifene for the primary prevention of osteoporotic fragility fractures in postmenopausal women (TA160)
Hip fracture: management (CG124)
Osteoporosis (QS149)
Source: National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE). Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
Check stock at pharmacies and supply information
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Search for this medicine at major UK pharmacy chains. These links open the retailer's own website — results depend on their current online catalogue.
Supply & safety information
Official UK regulator monitoring and safety alerts
Pharmacy links redirect to the retailer's own search and do not represent real-time stock levels. Shortage and safety information sourced from MHRA drug safety updates (gov.uk, Crown Copyright under OGL v3.0).
Codes for healthcare professionals and prescribing systems
These codes are used by healthcare IT systems and prescribers to identify this medicine.
NHS UK identifiers
Browse tools
SNOMED CT and dm+d codes from NHS TRUD (Technology Reference data Update Distribution), licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. ATC codes from the WHO Collaborating Centre for Drug Statistics Methodology (whocc.no).
Active and completed clinical studies from ClinicalTrials.gov
Source: ClinicalTrials.gov, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine (NLM), National Institutes of Health (NIH). Data accessed via ClinicalTrials.gov API v2. Trial information is provided for research purposes and does not constitute medical advice.
Academic studies and reviews for this medicine's active substance
Showing the 50 most relevant studies.
Reviews & meta-analyses: 9 · Randomised trials: 12 · 2001–2020
Showing the 50 most relevant studies, sorted by most relevant.
S. O’Donnell, Ann Cranney, Wells Ga, et al.
Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, 2006
- Organometallic Compounds
- Thiophenes
- Bone Density
P. J. Meunier, Daniel O. Slosman, Pierre D. Delmas, et al.
The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism, 2002
- Alkaline Phosphatase
- Bone and Bones
- Collagen
Jean‐Yves Reginster, J Badurski, Nicholas Bellamy, et al.
Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases, 2012
- Organometallic Compounds
- Radiography
- Thiophenes
Jean‐Yves Reginster, Dieter Felsenberg, Steven Boonen, et al.
Arthritis & Rheumatism, 2008
- Hip Fractures
- Longitudinal Studies
- Organometallic Compounds
Māra Pilmane, Kristīne Šalma-Ancāne, Dagnija Loča, et al.
Materials Science and Engineering C, 2017
- Organometallic Compounds
- Osteoporosis
- Strontium
Stephen Gallacher, Tracy Dixon
Calcified Tissue International, 2010
- Denosumab
- Antibodies, Monoclonal
- Bone Resorption
Matt Stevenson, Sarah Davis, M Lloyd-Jones, et al.
Health Technology Assessment, 2007
- Cost-Benefit Analysis
- United Kingdom
- Organometallic Compounds
J. A. Kanis, Håkan Johansson, Anders Odén, et al.
Osteoporosis International, 2011
- Algorithms
- Organometallic Compounds
- Thiophenes
Jean‐Yves Reginster, Rita Deroisy, Maxime Dougados, et al.
Osteoporosis International, 2002
- Analysis of Variance
- Lumbar Vertebrae
- Organometallic Compounds
M.S. Ali, K. Berencsi, K. Marinier, et al.
Osteoporosis International, 2020
- Diphosphonates
- Bone Density Conservation Agents
- Thiophenes
Sources: aggregated from Europe PMC (EMBL-EBI), OpenAlex, Crossref, PubMed and other open scholarly databases. Retracted articles are excluded. Study information is provided for research purposes and does not constitute medical advice.
Pharmacology and chemical data from DrugBank
Key facts
Drug status
Approved
Major interactions
None known
Half-life
60 hours
Mechanism
The underlying pathogenesis of osteperosis involves an imbalance between bone resorption and bone formation.
Food interactions
2 warnings
Human targets
None mapped
Data: DrugBank · CC BY-NC 4.0
Pharmacokinetics at a glance
Absorption
25%
Half-life
60 hours
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Protein binding
25%
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Volume of distribution
1 L/kg
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Metabolism
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Elimination
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Clearance
12 ml/min
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Pharmacokinetic data: DrugBank · CC BY-NC 4.0
Furthermore, various clinical studies demonstrate the ability of strontium ranelate to improve and strengthen intrinsic bone tissue quality and microarchitecture in osteoporosis by way of a number of cellular and microstructural changes by which anti-fracture efficacy is enhanced.
Available for prescription use for a time in some parts of the world as Protelos (strontium ranelate) 2 g granules for oral suspension by Servier, it was ultimately discontinued in 2016-2017 owing to an increased adverse cardiac effects profile along with increased risk of venous thromboembolism (VTE) and various life threatening allergic reactions.
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In postmenopausal women, strontium ranelate can also reduce the risk of vertebral and hip fractures .
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Known interactions with other medicines. Always consult a healthcare professional.
Showing 50 of 59 interactions
In pooled randomised placebo-controlled studies of post-menopausal osteoporotic patients, a significant increase in myocardial infarction has been observed in patients treated with strontium ranelate compared to placebo .
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Patients with significant risk factors for cardiovascular events (ie. hypertension, hyperlipidemia, diabetes mellitus, smoking) would be susceptible to an even higher risk of cardiac ishaemic events like myocardial infarction .
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In phase III placebo-controlled studies, strontium ranelate treatment was associated with an increase in the annual incidence of venous thromboembolism (VTE), including pulmonary embolism. This places substantial risk on patients at risk of VTE and elderly (over 80 years) patients at risk of VTE who may be more commonly associated with illnesses or conditions leading to immobilisation .
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Life-threatening cutaneous reactions like Stevens-Johnson syndrome (SJS), toxic epidermal necrolysis (TEN), and drug rash with eosinophilia and systemic symptoms (DRESS) have been reported with the use of strontium ranelate. In particular, a higher incidence of such reactions has been reported in patients of Asian origin.
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In a pooled analysis of randomised placebo-controlled studies in post-menopausal osteoporotic patients, the most common adverse reactions consisted of nausea and diarrhea .
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Nevertheless, good tolerance was shown in a clinical study investigating the repeated administration of 4 g strontium ranelate per day over 25 days in healthy postmenopausal women [FDA Label].
Single administration of doses up to 11 g in healthy young male volunteers did not cause any particular symptoms [FDA Label].
In patients with mild to moderate renal impairment (30-70 ml/min creatine clearance), strontium clearance decreases as creatinine clearance decreases (approximately 30% decrease over the creatinine clearance range 30 to 70 ml/min) and thereby induces an increase in strontium plasma levels. However, no dosage adjustment is required for patients with miod to moderate renal impairment - although no pharmacokinetic data exists for patients with severe renal impairment associated with creatinine clearance below 30 ml/min .
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There are no data from the use of strontium ranelate in pregnant women .
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Physico-chemical data suggests strontium ranelate can be excreted into human milk. Strontium ranelate should not be used during breastfeeding .
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No effects were observed on male and female fertility in animal studies .
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At the same time, given the similarity between the calcium 2+ and strontium 2+ cations, strontium 2+ cations from strontium ranelate are seemingly also able to act as an agonist and stimulate the CaSRs on osteoblasts, possibly in tandem with various local osteoblast stimulatory growth factors like transforming growth factor β (TGF β) and/or bone morphogenetic proteins (BMPs), to stimulate cyclic D genes and early oncogenes like c-fos and egr-1 that can mediate the mitogenesis and proliferation of new or more osteoblasts [A31580]. Moreover, although the involvement of the PLC mediated pathway may be a part of the signalling mechanism in osteoblasts following the stimulation of their CaSRs, this has not yet been fully elucidated [A31580].
Furthermore, strontium ranelate is also thought to be capable of stimulating osteoblasts to enhance the expression of osteoprotegerin while also concurrently reducing the expression of receptor activator of nuclear factor kappa-Β ligand (RANKL) in primary human osteoblastic cells. As osteoprotegerin can competitively bind to RANKL as a decoy receptor, which can prevent RANKL from binding to RANK, which is an activity that facilitates the signaling pathway for the differentiation and activaiton of osteoclasts. The subsequent net effect of these actions ultiamtely results in decreased osteoclastogenesis. [A31553]
Moreover, bone biopsies obtained from patients treated with stronatium ranelate in clinical study reveal improvements in intrinsic bone tissue quality and microarchitecutre in ostepoerosis as evidenced by increased trabecular number, decreased trabecular separation, lower structure model index, and increased cortical thickness associated with a shift in trabecular structure from rod to plate like configurations compared with control patients [A31553].
Additionally, strontium from administered strontium ranelate is absorbed onto the crystal surface of treated bones and only slightly substitiutes for calcium in the apatite crystal of newly formed bone. As a result, there is an increased X-ray absorption of strontium as compared to calcium, which can lead to an amplification of bone mineral density (BMD) measurement by dual-proton X-ray absorptiometry. In essence, although strontium ranelate use can increase BMD some of the observations may be overestimations due to skeletal accretion of strontium in strontium ranelate treated patients [A31553].
Having the ability to both generate more osetoblasts and decrease the number of osteoclasts gives strontium ranelate an apparent dual mechanism of action when used to treat osteoperosis.
It has also been shown that strontium ranelate is capable of improving and strengthening various components of overall bone tissue quality like bone mineral density and bone microarchitecture [A31541][A31542][A31553].
How the body processes this drug — absorption, distribution, metabolism, and elimination
The intake of strontium ranelate with calcium or food reduces the bioavailablity of strontium ranelate by about 60-70%, compared with administration 3 hours after a meal .
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Due to the relatively slow absorption of strontium, food and calcium intake should be avoided both before and after administration of strontium ranelate. Conversely, oral supplementation with vitamin D has no effect on strontium exposure whatsoever.
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ATC M05BX03
ATC M05BX53
Chemical identifiers
CAS, UNII, InChI Key and database cross-references
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Chemical identifiers
CAS, UNII, InChI Key and database cross-references
Linked compound data from DrugBank Open Data (CC BY-NC 4.0)
Strontium ranelate
DrugBank citations
If you use DrugBank data in your research, please cite:
- DrugBank 6.02024Recommended citationKnox C., Wilson M., Klinger C.M., et alDrugBank 6.0: the DrugBank Knowledgebase for 2024Nucleic Acids Res. 2024 Jan 552(D1):D1265-D1275
- DrugBank 5.02018Wishart D.S., Feunang Y.D., Guo A.C., et alDrugBank 5.0: a major update to the DrugBank database for 2018Nucleic Acids Res. 2017 Nov 846(D1):D1074-D1082
- DrugBank 4.02014Law V., Knox C., Djoumbou Y., et alDrugBank 4.0: shedding new light on drug metabolismNucleic Acids Res. 2014 Jan 142(1):D1091-7
- DrugBank 3.02011Knox C., Law V., Jewison T., et alDrugBank 3.0: a comprehensive resource for 'omics' research on drugsNucleic Acids Res. 2011 Jan39(Database issue):D1035-41
- DrugBank 2.02008Wishart D.S., Knox C., Guo A.C., et alDrugBank: a knowledgebase for drugs, drug actions and drug targets.Nucleic Acids Research2008 Jan36(Database issue):D901-6
- DrugBank 1.02006Wishart D.S., Knox C., Guo A.C., et alDrugBank: a comprehensive resource for in silico drug discovery and exploration.Nucleic Acids Research2006 Jan 134(Database issue):D668-72