The Osteogrow medicine is the first innovative cure in independent Croatia and second in total after the very successful Sumamed
The Croatian sensation of global dimensions in pharmaceutics is called Osteogrow, while the results of the conducted clinical trials show it could become unavoidable assistance for patients with problematic bone healing and those who need partial bone replacement, to be ready within 2 to 3 years, Jutarnji List reported on September 10, 2016.
Leader and project coordinator prof. dr. Slobodan Vukičević explains the procedure, which sounds quite simple: the patient’s own blood is used to make a clot in the operating room. The blood is injected with bone morphogenetic protein and then placed in the spot where new bone need to be created.
In several months the new bone piece is created, which is an absolute innovation in this type of medical issue. It only takes a decilitre of blood to create the needed clots.
“There are currently clinical trials of Osteogrow in Zagreb, Sarajevo and Vienna. This is the first time in history that the Croatian academic community developed independently, without the aid of the large pharmaceutical industry, a biological medicine after a line of procedures so demanding that only 20 new medicines are approved each year in the world,” said Vukičević, leader of the project at the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Zagreb.
“The bone regeneration medicine Osteogrow is the result of a large European project Seventh Framework Programme. For the first time the European Commission confided the project coordination to a Croatian medical institution, with 11 European partners from six states. They all helped, but the innovation and originality comes from Zagreb, while partners enabled us to do preclinical trials and move the project to clinical trials,” explained Vukičević. The project so far took four years, but the preparations began a decade ago.
A very important use of Osteogrow is expected in the treatment of the world’s premier pain issue, the one in the spine, caused by degenerative changes in the spinal cord.
The new medicine was financed by the European Commission for Science (FP7 Health), with 5.8 million Euro granted for the medicine development and clinical trials, which makes it the cheapest global medicine to date.
The cheapest medicine before this one had a cost of 60 million USD, while an average development of a new medicine costs at least 15 billion USD. Considering the conditions in Croatia, this is a miracle based on the huge enthusiasm of 40 top-notch scientists who are mostly unknown to the domestic populace, said prof. dr. Vukičević.
