Oral strontium ranelate for the treatment of knee osteoarthritis?

I’m a bit perplexed to hear today that strontium ranelate should be the solution of osteoarthritis. C. Cooper and J.-Y. Reginster are advocating strontium ranelate at the IOF-ECCEO12 CONGRESS - BORDEAUX 2012.

Only last month they published: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22148897  (Cooper C, Reginster JY, et al.: Efficacy and safety of oral strontium ranelate for the treatment of knee osteoarthritis: rationale and design of randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial. Curr Med Res Opin. 2012 Feb;28(2):231-9. Epub 2012 Jan 17). They came to the following conclusions: “This randomised, double blind, placebo-controlled study will establish the potential of strontium ranelate in improving structure and symptoms in patients with knee osteoarthritis.”

To me it sounds too good to be true, that within a month after the publication above all should be proven beyond doubt. There isn’t much on the subject (see: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed?term=("strontium ranelate" [Supplementary Concept]) AND "Osteoarthritis"[Mesh]) . I’ll wait for more information, especially will look carefully into the studies that make EULAR and ACR meetings this year.

Update on Strontiumranelate 04.04.2012:
I've just received a Red Hand Letter concerning strontiumranelate. EMEA and the German Bundesinstitut für Arzneimittel und Medizinprodukte has Servier inform all physicians in Germany about new risks concerning strontiumranelate. There is a contraindication for patients with acute venous thrombebolism, phlebothrombosis, or pulmonary embolism. Also immobilized patients aren't allowed to take strontiumranelate. Reason for this information is a study that has been published in France.

26.07.2012:
There hasn't been more on the subject. There is still this one study on knee osteoarthritis, which has also been discussed at the EULAR 2012 in Berlin: C. Cooper et al.: [AB0962] EFFICACY AND SAFETY OF STRONTIUM RANELATE IN THE TREATMENT OF KNEE OSTEOARTHRITIS: A RANDOMIZED, DOUBLE-BLIND, PLACEBO-CONTROLLED INTERNATIONAL TRIAL. I shall discuss this abstract later.
One should stop strontium ranelate in patients having interventions with increased risk of deep vein thrombosis . Decreased kidney function may be a contraindication. There are quite a lot of good reasons, when strontium ranelate shouldn’t be used. Link: http://www.netdoctor.co.uk/seniors-health/medicines/protelos.html

16.08.2016:

Some news on strontium ranelate. As of March 21^st 2014 the application for a change to the marketing authorization of strontium ranelate had been withdrawn at the Committee for Medicinal Products for

Human Use (CHMP). The application had been about an extension of the indication to include osteoarthris of the knee and hip. “There are no consequences on the use of Protelos/Osseor in its authorised indications.” (http://www.ema.europa.eu/docs/en_GB/document_library/Medicine_QA/2014/05/WC500167369.pdf).