Centre to develop new arthritis treatments
Last updated 12 June 2012

A new research centre has been created in Wales to develop new treatments for joint diseases.

The Arthritis Research UK Experimental Arthritis Treatment Centre is based at Cardiff University and will recruit volunteers to test drugs that are currently used in other conditions.

These medicines will be trialled in patients with rheumatoid and psoriatic arthritis to see whether they may also be beneficial for these diseases.

In addition, the centre will work on new lab tests to help determine the best type of therapy for individual patients.

Principal investigator Ernest Choy, professor of rheumatology in the university's School of Medicine, revealed: 'We aim to improve the outcome of rheumatoid and psoriatic arthritis by developing and testing novel treatments, especially those that have the potential to stop these diseases in their tracks, resulting in higher rates of disease remission.'

The centre will receive £115,000 worth of funding from Arthritis Research UK over the first three years.

Professor Alan Silman, the charity's medical director, said that the benefits and safety of new drugs need to be tested in small numbers of patients before large-scale trials can be carried out.

'Our new experimental arthritis treatment centres will provide the resources to study patients in these key first-stage studies,' he added.

The facility in Wales is one of seven new centres being set up by Arthritis Research UK to facilitate the testing and early development of new treatments.