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Rheumatoid Arthritis affects up to one percent of the population

Rheumatoid Arthritis is a relatively common chronic joint disease that occurs worldwide and affects up to one percent of the population. The disease progression, which can look different in different individuals, is most frequent between the ages of 45 and 65. Typically, joints and the structures around them are attacked and broken down. Arthritis leads to pain, swelling and reduced mobility. Without treatment, the joints are destroyed.

The current medical treatment aims to ease the pain and delay the course of the disease. This works well for most patients, but 1-10 percent do not tolerate or respond poorly to the medical treatments. These patients end up in a therapeutic dead end with a worse prognosis.

Glycorex technology can enable more effective treatment

Most RA patients form RA-associated antibodies, autoantibodies. The purpose of the Glycorex RA project is to use the company’s unique technology to reduce the presence of the RA-associated autoantibodies and thereby enable a more effective treatment of the disease.

Promising results in simulated patient treatments

Glycorex, together with the company’s partner, has conducted in vitro trials to measure how effective a treatment with Glycorex technology could be. The results are very promising and show that the product Glycorex has developed selectively and quantitatively reduce the RA-associated autoantibodies in blood samples from different RA patients, even for the patients with the highest levels of these antibodies. The next step is to start preparations for a clinical study (in-human study) together with our partners.

Significant market

The market potential for an effective treatment of Rheumatoid Arthritis is considered to be significantly greater than that of Glycosorb® ABO. In the EU alone, there are five million patients with Rheumatoid Arthritis, of which 1-10 percent do not tolerate or respond poorly to available medical treatments, i.e. 50 000-500 000 patients in Europe. Provided that the Glycorex RA product delivers the desired clinical results, this represents a market potential which is significantly greater than for Glycosorb® ABO.