Arthritis groups seek osteoarthritis therapy funding in ‘Shark Tank’ event on Capitol Hill
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Key takeaways:
- The Arthritis Foundation presented several potential therapies to lawmakers during a meeting on Capitol Hill.
- The potential therapies ranged from cultured cartilage to new pharmaceuticals.
Researchers and CEOs alike presented data recently at a “Shark Tank”-like session with lawmakers on Capitol Hill to discuss, and seek federal funding for, potential therapies for osteoarthritis.
“Part of our foundation’s mission is obviously finding a cure and treatment options and investing in osteoarthritis research grants and fellowships,” Steve Taylor, president and CEO of the Arthritis Foundation, said during the event, which was held on May 11 at the Rayburn House Office Building, in Washington, D.C. “Despite the exciting advancements that have been made in research around arthritis, the lack of successful drugs coming to market makes it a risky field. A strong federal investment is critical to finally bringing a treatment and relief to the more than 30 million people living with this disease.”
Four interventions and fields of research were presented during the meeting, hosted by the Arthritis Foundation and Angry@Arthritis. The potential therapies ranged from cultured cartilage to new drugs.
Ivan Martin, PhD, of Basel University, in Sweden, presented nasal tissue engineered cartilage. The tissue is cultivated from harvested nasal cartilage tissue, and then surgically applied to the defective tissue.
“This piece of cartilage is intended to target those individuals who have confined focal lesions that would otherwise spontaneously degenerate into osteoarthritis,” Martin said. “We recently used the grafted implant for treating those patients who are already in an advanced stage of osteoarthritis.”
Jennifer Elisseeff, PhD, of Johns Hopkins University, discussed the work being done to increase the feasibility of regenerative immunology, which could potentially train joints to repair themselves.
“We looked at repairing structure by developing hydrogels that could be injected into defects to mobilize your own repair capacity,” Elisseeff said. “The challenges here are delivering that to patients.”
According to Elisseeff, the gel her team created was tested in some clinical trials before being acquired by an orthopedics device manufacturing organization, where it has stagnated.
Regarding a more mechanical approach, Brad Estes, PhD, the president and CEO of CytexOrtho, discussed a regenerative medical device, called the ReNew Implant, created by the biotechnology firm based in North Carolina.
“We are calling this ReNew implant because we are trying to renew the joint,” Estes said. “The idea is to just deal with that surface-level disease, and replace it with this implant.
“[We are] restoring the anatomy, but most importantly, we are restoring the function, and we are doing it in a way that is friendly to biology so that, mechanically, these implants will restore the material properties and restore the functionality of these patients,” he added.
The ReNew implant is on track to begin clinical trials this year, Estes said.
Finally, Yusuf Yazici, MD, the chief medical officer of Biosplice Therapeutics, a biopharmaceutical company, reported on lorecivivint (SM04690, Biosplice), an injectable disease-modifying agent and CLK/DYRK inhibitor that can work for up to 6 months.
“We have tested more than 2,700 people in our trials so far, and we do not see any safety signals,” Yazici said. “We have shown data that it helps with the pain.”
According to Yazici, there is hope for lorecivivent to achieve FDA approval before the end of 2025.
The meeting was organized in part by U.S. Rep. Gerry Connelly, D-Va., and Rep. Debbie Dingell, D-Mi.
“This is one of those human conditions we have got to address, and technology and new genetic frontiers give us the opportunity to address it in a way that goes far beyond extra strength Tylenol,” Connelly said. “Keep up this fight, because I think it is really important, and it has the potential to alleviate a lot of human suffering.”
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Angry@Arthritis press release
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