Bioiberica Farma leads a new clinical essay to test the efficacy and security of the combination of chondroitin sulfate and glucosamine

Chicago, November 9, 2011. Bioiberica Farma presented today a new clinical trial which contributes further evidence of the efficacy and security of the combination of chondroitin sulfate and glucosamine to the treatment of knee osteoarthritis patients with moderate to severe pain.

The MOVES study (Multicenter Osteoarthrits InterVEntion trial with SYSADOAs, MOVES) was designed following Good Clinical Practices guidelines, as well as the legislation currently governing research of osteoarthritis drugs. It consists of a six-month multicenter, randomized, non-inferiority, parallel-group, double blind and placebo-controlled phase IV clinical trial. The researchers collected the data of 560 Spanish, German, French and Polish patients suffering from primary knee osteoarthritis with moderate to severe pain. The patients received either 1200 mg of chondroitin sulfate combined with 1500 mg of glucosamine hydrochloride, or 200 mg of an anti-inflammatory drug. The main evaluation criteria were reduction of pain (measured according to the WOMAC sub scale), at the end of the six-month treatment period, and security. This clinical trial is being supervised by a scientific committee formed by highly regarded national and international specialists. This project, which is currently in the patient recruitment stage, involves a grand total of 37 medical centers, 14 of them Spanish. 

Professor Marc C. Hochberg, head of the Division of Rheumatology and Clinical Immunology of the University of Maryland, USA presented the clinical trial at the  annual congress of the American College of Rheumatology (ACR), which it is being held in Chicago these days, with more than 15,000 rheumatologists in attendance. Professor Hochberg noted that the treatment of knee osteoarthritis patients suffering from moderate to severe pain require the use of a number of non-pharmacological options in combination with pharmacological agents; among the latter, there are non steroid anti inflammatory drugs (AINEs), analgesic, intra-articular joint therapies and Symptomatic Slow Acting Drugs for Osteoarthritis (chondroitin sulfate, glucosamine and diacetylrhein). His lecture put the main focus on the evidences of the efficacy and security of the combination of chondroitin sulfate and glucosamine, and highlighting the results of the GAIT (Glucosamine/Chondroitin Arthritis Intervention Trial) study. This study concluded that patients suffering from moderate to severe pain who were treated with that combination of drugs showed a statistically significant pain improvement when compared to the control group (a 20% pain reduction according to the WOMAC scale) as well as improvements in most of the secondary evaluation criteria. In fact, the reason of the MOVES clinical trial was to confirm and verify the positive results of the GAIT study.

Dr. Josep Vergés, clinical pharmacologist and scientific and medical director of Bioiberica Farma, underlined the importance of this study, because “obtaining positive results will yield further evidence of the efficacy of these drugs, as well as providing us with additional data in order to compare security and tolerability of the osteoarthritis treatments currently available”.

Bioiberica Farma is the only Spanish company who contributes contents to the Medical Education Program of the American College of Rheumatology. In fact, this is the sixth symposium organized by Bioiberica withih the ACR congress. The theme of this year was: “Osteoarthritis updates: Pathophsyiology and Pharmacologic management in 2011”. Bioibérica´s symposiums have introduced and disseminated the concept of chondroprotection (which has been very well received by the American Academy of Rheumatology). Their symposia have enlightened the world’s academic community about the efficacy and security of chondroprotection treatments in the management of osteoarthritis.

For further information, please contact:

Alba Soler

Communication manager, Bioiberica Farma

+34 682 040 776 or +34 93 490 49 08

Aina Mauri

+34 93 217 22 17