OSTEOGROW is making history!

The Croatian daily newspaper “Slobodna Dalmacija” dedicated its first three pages, including the cover page, to the EU FP7 project OSTEOGROW.

OSTEOGROW is the first EU scientific grant coordinated by a Croatian Institution - University of Zagreb School of Medicine. The project comprises 11 partners from 7 different countries and scientists are working together with the aim to develop and clinically test a novel drug for bone regeneration.

The project has come to its final stage successfully passing all foreseen and unpredicted developmental and regulatory barriers. Experts in the field expect the program to succeed and become the first Croatian global drug protected by patent offices on all continents with a prospective to penetrate the global market share for biological induction of new bone formation in patients with unmet medical needs. Therapeutic indications include: acute fractures in osteoporotic patients with high incidence of non-unions, fractures with delayed healing and in the future, the potential will be expanded towards the patients with a lumbar back pain due to removal of intervertebral disc and non-stable spiral segments. It is worth mentioning that this last indication is the second highest worldwide medical incidence, following the common cold.

Significantly and surprisingly, this is the first time that the first three pages in this daily newspaper did not include politics but promoted innovation, discovery in medicine and potential of the project for Croatian (and European) economy, giving an unusual mood of hope that such programs could be successfully initiated and finalized in Croatia by significant support from the European Commission for Research.