New partnership forms to accelerate arthritis therapy

A new partnership, named the M40 alliance, has been launched to accelerate the development of novel treatments for arthritis. The new venture is supported by a£7 million investment from the Kennedy Trust for Rheumatology Research.The M40 alliance will develop a network of consultants, nurses and clinical researchers in clinical units along the M40 corridor, based on a partnership between the Universities of Oxford and Birmingham, with other hubs in the area also involved. It will harness the existing research strengths of both universities in order to accelerate the development and testing of new therapies for patients.Underlying causes of inflammatory diseaseThe Arthritis Therapy Acceleration Programme (A-TAP) will develop and test therapies based on the underlying causes of inflammatory disease, rather than simply treating the clinical symptoms.Professor Fiona Powrie, Director of the Kennedy Institute of Rheumatology in Oxford, said:“This exciting initiative will allow us to place basic research at the heart of innovative new clinical trials. Lots of new molecular targets have been identified recently for a range of immune mediated inflammatory diseases like arthritis, yet there remains a time lag between identification of drugs, the choice of which disease to use them in, and their adoption into clinical practice. By identifying the underlying causes of disease we will be able to bridge current knowledge gaps and match therapy to underlying disease pathology.&r...
Source: Arthritis Research UK - Category: Rheumatology Source Type: news