For how we live.
Lorecivivint improved pain modestly and changed nothing structural. Sprifermin grew cartilage and the effect made no difference by year five. Both illustrate the gap between a biomarker and a benefit.
Across 29 studies the overall effect on chronic back pain was not significant. Split by whether the current was strong enough to be clearly felt, one subgroup showed a large effect and the other none.
GAIT randomised 1,583 people and found neither supplement beat placebo overall. A later network meta-analysis found effects below the clinically important threshold, and smaller still in industry-independent trials.
FIMPACT enrolled 210 people, assigned them to real surgery, fake surgery or exercise, and followed them to 2023. The gap between operated and pretend-operated groups was 1.5 points on a 100-point scale.
PACE randomised patients across 235 primary care centres and found recovery took 17 days on the drug and 16 days on placebo. For osteoarthritis the picture differs, but not flatteringly.
The PROP OA trial found a 3.39-point gain on a 100-point score at six months. The effect on pain was larger than the effect overall, and both diminished by twelve months.
TRIUMPH-4 tested retatrutide in 445 adults with obesity and knee osteoarthritis. The weight numbers are striking. So are the discontinuation numbers sitting beside them.