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Millions of people worldwide with severe back pain may be able to get relief from a new drug that uses antibiotics rather than painkillers to tackle the condition.
Doctors who have tested the drug said it could be “a gamechanger” for the one in four people whose lower back pain is caused by an infection rather than a muscular or spinal problem.
An early stage trial of the drug found that six in 10 of those who took it experienced major benefits, including a significant decline in the pain and disability they had previously suffered.
The drug, called PP353, is in development by Persica Pharmaceuticals, a Kent-based biotech firm. It staged the trial in conjunction with six NHS hospitals in England and Wales.
Dr Shiva Tripathi, an NHS pain consultant and the chief investigator of the trial, said if the drug is approved by regulators and becomes available, it would be “a gamechanger for chronic lower back pain on the similar levels as [how] antibiotics made a difference to infection. Because if we can get these 25% of the patients with chronic low back pain back to work, back to no medications, back to no more disability, then I think [that] will be the massive gamechanger for the future.”
However, the randomised controlled trial involved only 44 patients – 22 in Britain and 22 in Spain, Denmark, and New Zealand – so PP353 will have to undergo further trials, and be endorsed by the medicines watchdogs, before doctors can offer it to patients to relieve their symptoms.
The patients had all had severe back pain for at least six months, and in some cases more than five years, that had not responded to conventional treatment, such as painkilling medication.
Persica said that a big advantage of their treatment is that the patient has two injections four days apart rather than undergoing surgery or taking tablets for a long time. Recent research found that most of the 56 ways of trying to alleviate back pain, which researchers studied – ranging from massage and acupuncture to painkillers and physiotherapy – brought little or no real relief.
PP353 is a combination of three substances that are already widely used in medicine: linezolid, an antibiotic; iohexol, a contrast agent or dye; and a thermosensitive gel. It is injected into the lower back in order to banish an infection that has developed around the discs.
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The trial found six in 10 testers experienced benefits including a significant decline in pain and disability. Photograph: humonia/Getty Images/iStockphoto
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