Chronic cartilage degeneration and acute meniscal
tears
Inflammatory diseases of the joints, such as osteoarthritis, affect more than 43 million people in the US annually. Osteoarthritis results in loss of cartilage – which cannot repair itself after injury – at the surface of a joint which interferes with movement of the joint and is associated with pain. It typically occurs five to 15 years after the initial trauma that damaged the cartilage.
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More than 10 million people in the US currently suffer from osteoarthritis of the knee, making it the most common joint disease. Risk factors include being overweight, joint injury, muscle weakness, having other forms of arthritis and heredity.
Loss of the cartilage that cushions the ends of bones leads to bone-on-bone grinding and, ultimately, pain and loss of movement. |
Acute trauma to a healthy knee joint, such as during
sport can have a similar outcome as degenerative osteoarthritis.
There is no effective therapy for progressive osteoarthritis.
Current treatments attempt to alleviate painful symptoms
but are unable to restore the cartilage lining the joint.
Joint replacement is often the only option for restoring
function.
Approximately 800,000 patients undergo arthroscopic
knee surgery annually in the US. This procedure can
temporally relieve acute knee pain and/or instability,
but does not improve osteoarthritic knee symptoms due
to the lack of cartilage.
Mesoblast will initially target the knee arthroscopy
market for chronic osteoarthritis and acute cartilage
tears in the belief that arthroscopic injection of its
MPC product will enable regeneration of both cushioning
and surface cartilage to permanently relieve pain and
restore joint stability and freedom of movement.
The Technology
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