Description

Evista (generic name: raloxifene; brand names include: Ralista) belongs to a group of non-hormonal medicines called Selective Estrogen Receptor Modulators (SERMs).

When a woman reaches menopause, the level of the female sex hormone, estrogen (oestrogen), goes down. Evista mimics some of the beneficial effects of estrogen after menopause.

Evista has been prescribed by doctors for over 10 years to help keep bones strong and help prevent spinal fractures due to postmenopausal osteoporosis. Evista stops the thinning of the bones, increases bone mineral density, and helps restore the bone turn-over rate (the process of breaking down and rebuilding bone) to normal, premenopausal levels.

Evista is the only medicine proven to reduce both the risk of spinal fractures due to osteoporosis and the risk of invasive breast cancer in postmenopausal women with osteoporosis.

In a major clinical study of 7,700 postmenopausal women with osteoporosis, Evista was shown to significantly reduce their risk of getting a first spinal fracture. It even reduced the risk of subsequent fractures in postmenopausal women who had already experienced one.

In the same clinical trial of 7,700 postmenopausal women with osteoporosis, Evista was proven to have a second benefit - reducing the risk of invasive breast cancer, the most common kind of breast cancer. Additional large studies have confirmed these results.