Led by Suzanne Eldridge & Francesco Dell’Accio from William Harvey Research Institute
Research
Researchers Dr Suzanne Eldridge and Prof Francesco Dell’Accio’s work focuses on musculoskeletal regenerative medicine, and in particular osteoarthritis, a leading cause in chronic disability. Osteoarthritis affects a third of the population over the age of 50 years and the socio-economic burden costs 1.5-2% of the GDP in western countries. To date, there is no medicine that can stop or revert its course. However, together the team have now generated a portfolio of three therapeutics which promote cartilage regeneration. Each of these three products have shown to afford structural improvement (cartilage regeneration) and rapid pain relief in animal models, with all three having their own unique mode of action. Now the academics are trying to complete the pre-clinical package to enter the human trials phase.
Impact
Any biologic like this would be the first of its kind in the osteoarthritic market, and therefore would have major financial impact due to this market’s size ($12billion in humans), whilst also potentially reducing absenteeism in the workplace due to disability, hence having significant impact on the economy and society too if millions were able to regain their independence (the direct and indirect costs to the economy are £5.2 billion and £13 billion respectively). As osteoarthritis is very common and disabling in animals too, there is a vast veterinary market for such applications. The osteoarthritis market for dogs alone is estimated to reach $3.5 billion by 2028. Therefore the team are also adapting their targets to veterinary applications for horses and dogs.
Funding Allocation
The team are in the process of creating a spinout company with this strong and diverse portfolio, giving the company the best chance possible when entering the market. The team have been successful raising substantial funding from government and charities (£5.3 million in the last 10 years). The support from the Queen Mary Impact Fund stems from three successful applications to the Large Stream call over the past three academic years, once for each of these three compounds, with money going towards the partial salary of a postdoctoral researcher, consumables, constructs and in vivo validation in each. The team were also successful in the Small Stream award last year, with the money going towards the development of a business plan on how to best approach the creation of a Queen Mary spinout for these compounds.