There are fresh hopes that thousands of people suffering from arthritis could one day throw away their medication for good. Queensland researchers have developed a vaccine-like injection to transform treatment and give patients long-term relief from crippling pain.
“It was like having extreme pain when I was sleeping and when I wake up,” Sudhirkuma Patel said. “It was very difficult for the walking.”
The University of Queensland-led team won an $11.5 million federal government grant to manufacture the product they’ve been working on for over two decades.
Meaning clinical trials can start in two year’s time, to test the safety and effectiveness of the injection that has so far shown promising signs of being able to reprogram a patient’s immune system to go into remission for longer.
“Some people are going to flare so we’re looking at predictors of flare and when we would need to give another course of treatment,” Professor Ranjeny Thomas said. “If it’s really effective it’ll allow us to stop the other treatments they’re taking.”
“It’s called a moon shot because we’re going for something really ambitious,” Thomas said. “This should cause real hope for people who are suffering at the moment. It could also reduce the nearly billion-dollar economic burden of arthritis on the health economy.”