14th January 2025

Patient access to innovative procedure for treating knee osteoarthritis set to grow in 2025 as the Pure Sport Medicine Group partners with Contura Orthopaedics

UK, London I Contura Orthopaedics Ltd is pleased to announce that the pioneering, non-biodegradable hydrogel injectable implant Arthrosamid®, will now be available across the Pure Sports Medicine network for patients in London and the South East experiencing the pain and discomfort caused by knee osteoarthritis (OA).

Pure Sports Medicine Contura Orthopaedics Arthrosamid Partnership

Pure Sports Medicine is a UK’s leading provider of musculoskeletal, sport and exercise medicine, offering world-class medical care and non-surgical management of musculoskeletal injuries or conditions, such as OA.

Arthrosamid® offers long-lasting, proven pain relief 1,2 with a single injection – and crucially, a viable and evidence-based alternative to invasive open knee surgery.

The treatment has the potential to redefine the current care pathway for managing knee OA, which affects around 5.4 million people in the UK.3 Despite this large suffering population, there has been very little innovation in the range of OA treatments on offer to help patients – until now.

Dr John Etherington CBE, Consultant Rheumatologist & Medical Director at Pure Sports Medicine, will be part of the team of clinicians treating patients with the Arthrosamid® injection. He says:

With so little known about the exact causes of knee OA, many people find themselves in an ongoing cycle of treatments, such as painkillers or knee joint injectables (e.g. steroids or hyaluronic acid). Despite providing some relief, the effects can often be relatively short-lived, leaving many fearing that knee replacement surgery is the only long-term answer. But with lengthy recovery times and the risk of repeat surgical procedures needed further down the line, this is often not the best choice for younger, active patients with significant pain and early osteoarthritis.

Arthrosamid®, however, has been hailed by clinicians as an exciting ‘game changer’; the first and only injectable hydrogel proven to help patients with knee OA, offering a real alternative to surgery.

Eligible patients receive a single injection into the knee joint space – a 6ml dose of Arthrosamid® (which permanently combines with the knee’s synovial tissue4) – decreasing joint stiffness, diminishing pain, improving the function of the knee affected by knee osteoarthritis, and enhancing your quality of life.1,5,6 

Encouragingly, new four-year data presented in September 2024 at the European Orthopaedic Research Society Meeting (EORS) in Aalborg, Denmark demonstrated the long-term efficacy of the hydrogel injection – showing that a single dose maintained a statistically significant reduction in pain in patients with knee OA four years after treatment.1

CEO at Contura International Ltd, Rakesh Tailor comments:

"We’re thrilled to be working so collaboratively with the progressive team at Pure Sports Medicine in a new partnership that will really help to improve awareness and widen access to Arthrosamid®.  There has been a lack of innovation and so the treatment options for the thousands of people affected by the debilitating pain caused by knee OA are limited."

"This news is a great way to start the year – following many exciting developments in the availability of Arthrosamid® as well as the release of new and greatly anticipated clinical research data around the efficacy of Arthrosamid®, now showing pain relief in patients, up to four years post-treatment."

Our patients have always been at the core of our business and this partnership with Pure – combined with its holistic and multi-disciplinary approach of getting people ‘back on their feet’ – is another step towards helping hundreds more patients find relief from the pain of knee OA.

Arthrosamid is recommended for a number of patients, including:

  •  Patients who have found no success with other treatments or preventative measures
  • Those considered too young for surgery
  • Self-employed people who struggle to take time off for major surgery                                 
  •  Those who don't want a Total Knee Replacement

Rakesh Tailor adds:                                                                                 

The story of Arthrosamid® is quite fascinating. Our hydrogel technology was first used in the veterinary world to treat lame horses, the clinical data associated with ArthramidVet® led to its use in the ‘human knee’– and already, in less than three years, well over 13,000 people across Europe7 have had Arthrosamid® injected into their knees – a figure we expect to see soar throughout 2025 and beyond!

Need more information about Arthrosamid®?

References:

1.Bliddal, H., et al. (2024) A Prospective Study of Polyacrylamide Hydrogel Injection for Knee Osteoarthritis: Results From 4 Years After Treatment. Presented at EORS 2024.

2.Bliddal, H., et al. (2024) 3 year follow-up from a randomized controlled trial of intra-articular polyacrylamide hydrogel injection in subjects with knee osteoarthritis. Poster LB-31, OARSI 2024 World Congress on Osteoarthritis.

3.Versus Arthritis, 2023

4.Christensen, L., et al. (2016). Histological Appearance of the Synovial Membrane after Treatment of Knee Osteoarthritis with Polyacrylamide Gel Injections: A Case Report. Journal of Arthritis. Vol 5: 217.

5.Bliddal, H., et al. (2021) Polyacrylamide Hydrogel Injection for Knee Osteoarthritis: A 6 Months Prospective Study. J Orthop Res Ther. Vol 6 (2). 1188. ISSN 2575-8241 

6.Bliddal, H., et al. (2022). One-year performance of polyacrylamide hydrogel vs. hyaluronic acid: A randomised controlled study. Osteoarthritis and Cartilage, Vol 30, S1, S371.

7.Company data on file

8.Bliddal, H., et al. (2024). Effectiveness and safety of polyacrylamide hydrogel injection for knee osteoarthritis: results from a 12-month follow up of an open-label study. J Orthop Surg Res. Vol 19: 274.

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