Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of the potential application in the NHS of a treatment for arthritis proposed by researchers at Queen Mary University involving injection of microvesicles.

We are aware of a recent study undertaken by Queen Mary University of London which suggested that arthritic cartilage could be treated by microvesicles. This work is still at a very early stage and the efficacy of such a treatment approach would need to be demonstrated in clinical trials before it could be considered for routine use in the National Health Service.