Cipla Teams Up with Stempeutics to Bring New Knee Pain Treatment to India
There is something interesting happening in the medical world. Cipla has teamed up with Stempeutics Research to launch a new treatment called Ciplostem for knee osteoarthritis. This was also approved by the DCGI – India’s drug regulator. This drug is something different from what is usually available.
What is the hype?
Today, knee osteoarthritis is affecting more than 48 million people in India, and this is a really huge number. Before, it was only older people who were getting affected; now, even younger people are dealing with it.
And the most difficult part is that most of the treatments are temporary solutions. You can take painkillers and physiotherapy, but nothing can stop this disease from getting worse. The symptoms can just be managed on an everyday basis.
How does This New Treatment work?
Ciplostem will be a single injection that goes directly into your knee joint. This is made from mesenchymal stromal cells that come from donor bone marrow. This makes it different from others, as this drug can be consumed directly, and there is no need for specific customization.
The treatment is designed for people with Grade II and Grade III knee osteoarthritis (that’s moderate to serious, but not the absolute worst stage). The final goal is to reduce the inflammation and pain by working at the cellular level. This will help your joint work better and preserve the cartilage quality.
According to Jaideep Gogtay from Cipla, they’re aiming to cut pain significantly and keep joints working better for up to 2 years after the shot has been taken.
What makes this drug different?
This drug does not work to make the patients feel better temporarily. It’s trying to slow down how fast the disease progresses and help maintain the cartilage in the knee. This is very significant because once the cartilage is damaged, it does not grow back easily.
Stempeutics spent over 12 years developing this technology, and they’ve already done Phase 3 clinical trials that showed good results. This marks Cipla’s first step into “orthobiologic medicine,” which is basically using biological materials to treat joint problems.
The Future
This is actually India’s first approved stem cell therapy for knee osteoarthritis that you can use directly without customization. Stempeutics has been making wonders in this space. They already have another product for treating critical limb ischemia (basically, severe circulation problems in legs).
For patients dealing with knee pain every day, this will be a real alternative to either living with the pain or eventually needing knee replacement surgery.
