OAlipotherapy · Long-retention liposomic drug-delivery for intra-articular osteoarthritis therapy

Osteoarthritis (OA) is the most widespread joint disease, affecting millions and imposing a huge individual and socio-economic burden. The creation of liposomes functionalised with novel (IP-protected) molecules that greatly extend (by almost an order of magnitude) their half-life in joints following IA injection, relative to existing approaches, and the alleviation of OA that may arise through exploiting this longer retention, is the basis of this proof of concept project. The main innovation step is functionalizing liposomes with our novel molecules to provide much longer retention drug-delivery vehicles, which therefore provide greater benefits in therapy relative to existing approaches, and so should be preferred by patients. Its practical implementation, to advance and investigate the potential for long-retention IA drug-delivery and other uses, will be carried out both through validation on animals (proof-of-concept), through suitable pre-commercialisation studies, networking and identifying potential partners, and developing a business plan. Hence, we propose to validate the concept of creating new products that will be available commercially for IA delivery, implementing the long-retention in the joints which greatly enhances their usefulness and which is the basis of the present innovation step.