Wellington scientists are working on a new medicine they say may provide relief for millions of people who suffer crippling pain from gout.
The head of Industrial Research Ltd's (IRL) biotechnology division, Richard Furneaux, says his team is working in collaboration with scientists in New York on a new approach to reducing the effects of the condition, the third most common form of arthritis.
But it will be several years before the drug being developed reaches the market.
IRL is working with a US biotech firm BioCryst Pharmaceuticals Inc which recently announced human clinical trial of the drug, in patients suffering from gout, particularly common in people of Maori and Pacific island descent.
Rates of the illness in New Zealand are reported to be five or six times higher than the world average.
Gout is caused by the buildup of uric acid in the blood, with the excess stored as crystals which can accumulate, painfully, in joints.
Apart from a genetic predisposition - such as seen in some Polynesians - risk factors include foods rich in natural substances known as purines, which can be particularly high in meat and shellfish.
Some sufferers have taken daily doses of drugs such as allopurinol to lower uric acid levels and reduce the frequency attacks, but side effects have included drowsiness, and aches in the stomach or head.
The new drug differed by inhibiting an enzyme, purine nucleoside phosphorylase (PNP), and would give doctors a greater choice of drugs for lowering uric acid levels.
Dr Furneaux said the gout trial was recruiting 120 patients at 12 hospitals in the US and was expected to run until September 2010. IRL will receive "milestone payments", and if the drug wins regulatory approval, and royalties on net sales.
It already has another drug - for cancer treatment - in phase 2 testing in the United States.
"We are working towards greater capture of the 100s of millions of dollars of development spend in New Zealand as we expand," said Dr Furneaux.
There were a dozen scientists working on the project, which was likely to require the spending of between $135 million and $270 million in the nation's biotechnology sector.
