The world’s most common joint disease, osteoarthritis (OA) affects more than 10 percent of American adults, nearly 80 percent of people past age 55, and about three times as many women as men. Treatment has been targeted at controlling the pain that tends to come with the progressive loss of articular cartilage cushioning the joints, disintegration of the underlying bone, and the formation of bone spurs or osteophytes. No drug has been proven to block OA’s specific joint-destroying processes.
