A treatment for osteoarthritis (OA) could slash pain by half and limit stiffness and other debilitating symptoms, a study shows. 

LEVI-04, developed by biotechnology company Levicept, is a first-in-class treatment for OA which led to a 50% reduction in pain for patients participating in a Phase II study. 

The trial was a randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled Phase II study which enrolled 518 participants with pain and disability due to OA of the knee. LEVI-04 demonstrated significant differences to placebo for the WOMAC pain score primary endpoint for all doses, with more than a quarter of patients reporting a 75% reduction in pain. 

The results were announced in a publication in The Lancet, with Professor Philip Conaghan as lead author. 

“The potential benefits of this treatment for patients are very significant,” Conaghan said, who is also Director NIHR Leeds Biomedical Research Centre and Chief Investigator on the study. 

“Osteoarthritis impacts on all aspects of people’s lives and there are limited therapy options currently to manage the symptoms. This has left us and our patients with very few choices to relieve the discomfort caused by the condition.

“LEVI-04 as the first in a new line of therapies offers the possibility to be a gamechanger, giving us better options to treat the pain faced by patients, and with further possibilities to unlock new treatments in the future.  

“It also offers us as a chance to improve wellbeing, reduce the cost of support patients need from health services, and giving patients hope of being able to live more independently.”