Osteoarthritis: Two-Year Results Show Benefits of Orthokine Therapy

DÜSSELDORF, GERMANY, September 12, 2007-Within the scope of the German Osteoarthritis Trial (GOAT) the effects of different innovative medications in osteoarthritis (OA) therapy were studied. All 376 participants in the trial suffered from painful OA of the knee joint and were treated with Orthokine, hyaluronic acid, or placebo injections. Orthokine therapy uses autologous, anti-inflammatory proteins, which are isolated from the patient’s blood and injected into the joint. Six months after the treatment, the outcome differed depending on the therapy: The condition of Orthokine-treated patients was found to be much better than that of patients treated with hyaluronic acid or placebo. The trial was conducted by the Heinrich Heine University in collaboration with the Center for Molecular Orthopaedics (Düsseldorf, Germany) and was recently published in the scientific journal “Biodrugs.” In the meantime, results obtained over two years give further support to the therapy utilising autologous proteins.

In past years, scientists have set high hopes on so-called biologicals-therapies using biological substances. These should directly address the cause of the disease and as a result, be particularly effective. Following a long period of developing new approaches against OA-among others the Orthokine therapy-biologicals are in the clinical trial phase. During this phase, the GOAT study was a milestone in the clinical research of the use of biologicals in orthopaedics.