Hyaluronan treatment shows 'good results in clinical trial'

A new osteoarthritis treatment has shown good results in a clinical trial, according to drug manufacturer Pherring Pharmaceuticals.

Euflexxa (sodium hyaluronate) has shown significant improvements in reducing the pain of knee osteoarthritis compared to saline.

Researchers studied 586 patients over 26 weeks and divided them into two groups. One group was treated with intra-articular injections of hyaluronan, while the other group was given saline.

The results, presented at the Osteoarthritis Research Society International 2008 World Congress in Rome, revealed that after 26 weeks, patients treated with hyaluronan showed a significant improvement in pain after a 50-foot walk compared to those in the saline group.

"The study results clearly demonstrate that euflexxa rapidly relieved the pain of knee osteoarthritis and that effect was sustained at the six-month period," said Dr Roy Altman, one of the researchers.

However, a spokesman for the Arthritis Research Campaign said that hyaluronic acid injections had not been recommended by NICE in its osteoarthritis guidelines produced earlier in the year because they were not sufficiently cost-effective to be prescribed on the NHS.

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