Osteoarthritis cure on the horizon thanks to SA biopharma company Paradigm

Pain relief is on the cards for about three million Australians suffering from osteoarthritis thanks to a SA biopharma company and a posse of AFL greats including Adelaide’s Mark Ricciuto and Carlton FC legends Greg Williams and Andrew Walker.

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Pain relief is on the cards for about three million Australians suffering from a progressive and debilitating disease thanks to a South Australian biopharma company and a posse of AFL greats including Adelaide’s Mark Ricciuto.

Ricciuto and Carlton FC legends Greg Williams and Andrew Walker are among countless footy players — past and present — whose lives have been blighted by osteoarthritis through accumulated on field wear and tear.

But remarkably, a cure could now be just around the corner.

The trio have taken part in low key trials over the past three years that have led to such near miraculous improvements that tiny SA bio outfit, the ASX listed Paradigm, which is driving the research, expects to become at least a $1 billion company within the next few years.

Pentosan, also known as iPPS, has successfully trialled across Australia, overseen by government regulatory body Therapeutic Goods Administation (TGA), to the extent that Paradigm chief executive officer, renowned industry leader, Adelaide’s Paul Rennie, expects the drug to be available to the public within two years.

Not only has pentosan hugely reduced pain in patients struggling with knee problems but it is also having an unexpected ‘whole of body’ impact where patients are experiencing stress relief in other parts of the body, such as hands and backs.

More stunning still, and in addition to reductions in swelling and pain, MRI scans have showed reversals of bone marrow lesions (which cause loss of function in the knees, hips and ankles) leading to a wholesale turnaround in some patients lives.

Back in the heyday: Former Adelaide skipper Mark Ricciuto.

Carlton footballer Greg Williams in action back in 1993.

Unsurprisingly, Paradigm is attracting a host of big name footy investors including Brownlow medallists Chris Judd, Williams and Ricciuto.

Dozens of AFL players — past and present — are understood to have taken pentosan to help with joint injuries.

Andrew Walker was on the scrapheap three years ago, aged just 30, as a persistent knee injury forced him out of footy, leaving him in daily agony and effectively immobile.

“I couldn’t believe how much pain I was in. I had gone from playing elite level footy to being crippled. I was not prepared for it,” he said.

“I went from 91 kilos of AFL muscle to 84 kilos through not being able to put weight on my left knee.”

As a last resort, Carlton club doctor, Phil Bloom, suggested he took part in an early iPPS trial and Walker began a six week stint of twice weekly injections in hope more than expectation.

“After taking the drug it was the strangest thing, three months later I was starting to feel better.

“You don’t want to get too excited (but) I knew something was changing in my left knee.”

Four months later, remarkably, he was back running and is now playing and coaching in division 1 of the Country VFL.

Former Carlton player Andrew Walker with his family Cody, 9, Arli, 5, and Leti, 2, and wife Kylie. Picture: Alex Coppel.

Mark Ricciuto knows about pain too, his 312 game career grinding to an end when his left knee could no longer take the daily footy shudder.

“My doctor said, ‘don’t call me, I can’t do any more for you. You need a replacement but you are too young,” Ricciuto said.

“I hated having to go for a run when I was playing footy and I didn’t like going for a run after footy to try and lose weight. But when you can’t run anymore, you miss it.”

The six week pentosan program proved a whole of body winner, as an aching back soothed immeasurably while his knee, shorn of much cartilage, has improved too.

“I am just happy that there finally might be a drug that can give me and so many other people a better quality of life,” Ricciuto said.

AFL players — including two Victoria based, rising AFL stars and some players in SA — are believed to have benefited from the trials.

In addition to 112 patients who have taken part in controlled studies — half receive the drug with the other half given a harmless placebo — about 500 people have taken part via a national (TGA) access scheme that allows players — and non playing sufferers — to ask their doctor to help them trial the drug.

Paradigm is also asking the TGA equivalent in America — the renowned Food and Drugs Administration (FDA) — to allow it to shortly offer pentosan to 50 NFL players to expand its reach.

Domestic results have been staggering.

“The drug has been able to show there has been a reversal of structural changes, it fundamentally changes the structure of the joint,” Mr Rennie said.

“Just two weeks after an eight week trial, we saw a clinically meaningful reduction in people treated with the drug. It is a big improvement in the fundamentals, a world first.”

AFL legend Greg Williams is able to move freely again. Picture: Aaron Francis

Much is on course, a recent completion of the bulk of the drug trials, phase 2 has been successful and Paradigm this week announced it had raised almost $78 million via a new capital raising exercise.

And there is good news for patients once the final research stage (phase 3) of the experimental drug is ticked off, particularly so in SA where waiting times for a total knee replacement can be two or three years and costs will range from $30-40,000.

“Pentosan will be available from a doctor by prescription,” Paradigm chief scientific officer Ravi Krishan said. “It will be about one tenth of the price and there will be no need for an operation and the patient is not taking pain killers in this time.”

One or two doses will do the trick for each patient he said.

Osteoarthritis is a huge societal problem that can lead to sustained opiate addiction — the USA with 31 million osteoarthritis sufferers is particularly badly hit — with pentosan likely to heavily cut out the need to take prescription painkillers he said. The disease is not restricted to long playing sportsmen and women where weakened knees, backs and hips are regular sources of pain.

It can, and does, afflict anyone.