The launch of a new partnership – bringing together the pioneers of the Arthrosamid® hydrogel injection and the membership & development body for athletics clubs across England – promises to inspire runners to keep their knee health ‘on track’
Contura Orthopaedics and England Athletics are this month announcing the launch of an inspiring new commercial partnership which will see key messages about the benefits of non-surgical alternatives for the treatment of pain associated with knee osteoarthritis (OA) disseminated across a membership base of around 1800 affiliated grassroots clubs.
With a proposed target audience of runners and athletes aged 35+, suffering with knee pain and / or OA (as well as coaches and physiotherapists associated with the organisation), England Athletics is ideally placed to help Contura Orthopaedics reach out to those in need of reliable education and information about the potential benefits of the novel hydrogel injection, Arthrosamid® .
The collaboration – which will include workshops, webinars and in-person events, as well as the recruitment of a new panel of Ambassadors, will shine a light on the importance of emerging innovation in the osteoarthritis ‘space’, whilst raising awareness of treatment options designed to maintain mobility – and crucially, to help keep people running!
An insightful new survey conducted by England Athletics (English Athletics Knee injury survey, Nov 2024, N=131) as part of this project, revealed that almost 9 in 10 of the athletes questioned claimed to have experienced knee pain which prevented them from running, with the majority taking action in the form of rest (88%) painkillers (64%) or physiotherapy (63%). And, over half (51%) of those asked admitted they would consider paying for treatment for knee pain if it meant avoiding surgery.
Arthrosamid® offers long-lasting, proven pain relief [1,2] with a single injection and has the potential to redefine the current care pathway for managing knee OA, which affects around 5.4 million people in the UK.[3] Despite this large suffering population, there has been very little innovation in the range of OA treatments on offer to help patients – until now.
And, as such, Arthrosamid®, has been hailed by clinicians as an exciting ‘game changer’; the first and only injectable hydrogel proven to help patients with knee OA, offering a real alternative to surgery.
Eligible patients receive a single injection into the knee joint space – a 6ml dose of Arthrosamid® (which permanently combines with the knee’s synovial tissue[4]) – decreasing joint stiffness, diminishing pain, improving the function of the knee affected by knee osteoarthritis, and enhancing quality of life.[1,5,6]
Encouragingly, new four-year data presented in September 2024 at the European Orthopaedic Research Society Meeting (EORS) in Aalborg, Denmark demonstrated the long-term efficacy of the hydrogel injection – showing that a single dose maintained a statistically significant reduction in pain in patients with knee OA four years after treatment.[1]
Rakesh Tailor, CEO of the Contura Group, comments; “With lighter mornings and longer evenings well on the horizon, March marks the unofficial start of the amateur running season, and so what better time to launch this exciting new collaboration with our inspiring associates at England Athletics! This partnership will provide us with unrivalled access to communication channels that will reach out to a wide and engaged audience of keen and talented runners and athletes. This sporting community shares a determination to keep training and taking part in the events and races they love, without being prevented from doing so by pain and discomfort.
“Patient education, sharing robust research findings and p