Uncle Sam Signs Up to Cure Osteoarthritis – NITRO or NUTSO?

We’re stoked that ARPA-H has signed up to cure OA in five years with its new Novel Innovations for Tissue Regeneration in Osteoarthritis (NITRO) program. Announced in May of 2023, NITRO is headed by Dr. Ross Uhrich, who attended the Angry@Arthritis OA Shark Tank on the Hill. We’re excited about NITRO, but we want to know more. At launch, it was rumored NITRO had a $50Billion budget – we still don’t know the size and scope of the program. Sadly, it’s been mostly crickets from ARPA-H NITRO since May – we haven’t seen hide nor hare of Dr. U since May – what are the facts and what’s the latest?

Rumor has it ARPA-H awarded a series of NITRO contracts to research organizations to cure OA. Questions:

Who got NITRO money?
How much – and for what approaches?
What are the expected outcomes?
How will we measure success?

32.5 million Americans with OA want to know. That’s why we’re excited to partner with Congressman Connolly (D-VA), Congressman Beyer (D-VA), and other members of the U.S. Congress to support NITRO – but also to make sure American patients have a seat at the NITRO table.

This from Xavier Beccerra, Health and Human Services Secretary:

“Americans who suffer the disabling pain of osteoarthritis know what a game-changer this would be.”

This from Dr. Ross Uhrich, NITRO Program Manager, ARPA-H:

“This is really looking to cure and/or eradicate or massively change the algorithm for an entire disease, where we have the ability to tactically fund and create a new range of therapeutics, far broader and more aggressively than anything else that I’ve seen. This is not something that takes 15, 20, 25 years to get to patients.”

This from Steve O’Keeffe, Angry@Arthritis:

It’s Nutso that we don’t know more about NITRO – America needs to know.

Let’s roll up our shirt sleeves and cure OA now!

Key links to learn more: