Orthocell aces tennis elbow trial

Orthocell (AS:OCC) said patients enrolled in a long-term study of its Ortho-ATI treatment in tennis elbow have shown on average improvement in grip strength of over 200%.

Patients in the trial all have a severe form of tennis elbow called chronic lateral epicondylitis. Grip strength scores had improved by an average of 84% at one year post-treatment with autologous stem cell therapy Ortho-ATI and by an average of 207% at 4.5 years post-procedure.

Ortho-ATI involves extracting a sample of healthy tendon stem cells from a patient, culturing and expanding them in a laboratory and re-injecting them into damaged tendon tissue. Each patient in the trial was given a single injection of culture-expanded stem cells.

The study was undertaken at the University of Western Australia in conjunction with Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital in Western Australia.

“The results are very positive and encouraging for patients affected by painful and debilitating degenerate tendon injuries,” Orthocell Managing Director Paul Anderson said.

“They show long-term, sustained and statistically significant positive results in a very difficult to treat group of chronic patients.”

Ortho-ATI is approved in Australia and New Zealand for patients who have failed conventional treatment options such as corticosteroid injections and have ongoing symptoms.

Orthocell (ASX:OCC) shares were trading unchanged at $0.38 as of around 2 pm on Monday.