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It took my savings and 14 years but I’m about to beat arthritis

After Simon Westbrook was laid off by Pfizer he spent his redundancy money turning an idea on a piece of paper into a clinical triumph. It could be on the NHS in three years

Finally in March, after a 14-year mission to develop a game-changing drug to treat osteoarthritis, Westbrook, now 54, was sitting in the courtyard of a church in the village of Colorno, Italy, when he received the news he had long been waiting for. Westbrook, who moved from Melbourne to study for a postdoctorate in physiology endocrinology at Cambridge University aged 26, is behind the drug known as LEVI-04, produced by his company, Levicept, which could revolutionise the treatment of osteoarthritis for the estimated 600 million sufferers worldwide. The recently completed phase-two trial of 510 patients showed sufferers reporting huge reductions in pain, increased mobility and better mental health, as they found themselves unencumbered by their illness for the first time in years.

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