New impetus to the research of biomarkers in arthrosis with the Union of the FNIH and Bioiberica Farma.

-the biomarkers could measure the effectiveness of the treatments thus assuming a savings for the national system of health

-the foundation of the National Institutes of Health says that the objective collaboration is to improve the quality of life of the sick artrósicos through early diagnosis and personalized treatment of the disease

Barcelona, February of 2012.- the Foundation for the National Institutes of Health (FNIH), of United States, and Bioiberica Farma have signed an agreement of scientific collaboration to promote the research of biomarkers in arthrosis. The main challenge is to investigate and validate multiple biochemical markers (blood and urine) and image to diagnose osteoarthritis of knee before it manifests, detect the profile of patients with worse prognosis, predicting the evolution of the disease and measuring the effectiveness of treatments.

To do this, it will make use of resources from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), specifically of the Osteoarthritis Initiative (OAI), a repository of images, data of patients and biological samples in order to assess the ability of a range of biochemical markers and image through the analysis of x-rays, MRIs and blood and urine samples. From here, the project will seek to validate them and determine the speed at which change over time.

The project is carried out in the next two and a half years by an international team of scientists and medical experts in arthritis, under the auspices of The Biomarkers Consortium, a public-private organization administered by the FNIH. The research team is led by Dr. David Hunter, rheumatologist epidemiologist, Professor of the University of Sydney, and by the DRA. Virginia Byers Kraus, reumatóloga and Professor of medicine at Duke University (Durham, North Carolina, USA).

Osteoarthritis is a chronic, degenerative and inflammatory disease that affects the joints. It causes loss of cartilage, inflammation of the synovial membrane and remodeling of the bone subcondral. The DRA. Byers Krauss stresses that of knee arthritis can affect people of any age and is one of the leading causes of disability in adults. In addition, provides that, in the coming years, the number of patients who suffer because of the ageing of the population, the intensive practice of sport and obesity can double. The main symptoms of the disease are the pain and functional disability ”.

One of the major problems today is its early detection is difficult precisely because of the lack of biomarkers to evaluate its appearance and progression. That is why Dr. Hunter said: this project has incredible potential. If we improve our ability to predict and control the progression of osteoarthritis, we can intervene before and improve the quality of life of the patient. The biomarkers we identify can serve to categorize patients according to risk suffering from arthrosis, measuring the clinical progression of disease and develop new treatments that halt its evolution ”.

Bioiberica Farma participates in the Scientific Committee of the project, represented by Dr. Josep Vergés, clinical pharmacologist and medical director and scientist Bioiberica Farma. Farma Bioiberica mission is to improve the quality of life of the patients artrósicos, an objective that we share with the FNIH. With this scientific collaboration, we want to reaffirm our commitment to research in the field of personalized medicine and thus achieve, improve diagnosis and treatment of this disease affecting in Spain to 7 million people. In addition, biomarkers in arthrosis help us identify patients answering to treatment, which is very important in the context of economic crisis and containment of expenditure on health in which we ”, States Dr. Vergés.

The Biomarkers Consortium team includes experts from the National Institutes of Health, Food and Drug Administration (FDA), biotechnological and pharmaceutical companies, academic institutions and organizations non-profit which include: Abbott; Amgen Inc.; Arthritis Foundation; Bioiberica S.A.; DePuy Mitek, Inc.; Flexion Therapeutics, Inc.; GlaxoSmithKline; Merck Serono; Rottapharm | Madaus; Sanofi; and Stryker. Also have collaborated: Alere Inc.; ARTIALIS S.A.; BioVendor – Laboratorni medicine a.s.; IBEX Pharmaceuticals Inc.; Immunodiagnostic Systems Ltd; and Quidel Corporation.

About Foundation for the National Institutes of Health

The FNIH was created by the United States Congress in 1990 to support the Mission of the NIH (improve public health) and to promote scientific collaboration between universities, industry and non-profit organizations. Since then, the Foundation has brought together the best researchers and has become world leader in biomedical research and health.

About The Biomarkers Consortium

The Biomarkers Consortium is a public-private biomedical research agency managed by the FNIH which strives to develop and validate biomarkers to accelerate the development of drugs and therapies for the detection, prevention and treatment of disease, and to improve patient care.

About Bioiberica Farma

Prevention, diagnosis and treatment of arthritis. These are the three priorities for Bioiberica Farma, the only Spanish company specializing in research and development of medicines and effective techniques for the treatment and the comprehensive approach to osteoarthritis. Injuries to the cartilage, synovial membrane, and bone subcondral is specifically, world reference in chondroprotection, namely, prevention, diagnosis and treatment.

For a few years, Bioiberica Farma is making a strong bet for research in personalized medicine, i.e. to develop products using genetic and/or environmental information of a patient to diagnose, prevent or treat the disease. Why has created Artialis, a spin-off with the University of Liège, specialized rheumatologists and the Belgian Government, the development of biomarkers in arthrosis.