TL;DR
No approved drug rebuilds an arthritic knee. On Nov. 10 the FDA cleared a Miami company, Restem, to test a different kind of knee shot in people: no living cells at all, just the proteins and growth factors that cells from umbilical-cord lining release. Restem expects the trial to start in the first half of 2027, and its second stage pits the shot against a common knee injection, hyaluronic acid, in a randomized, double-blind test where neither patients nor doctors know who got what. The same day, Levicept showed new lab data for LEVI-04, a non-opioid arthritis-pain antibody built to sidestep the joint damage that sank an earlier class of pain drugs; its main results, from 518 people, came out back in March. Two new approaches to arthritic knees moved on the same day. Our odds on when the cord-cell shot could prove itself, and on the pain antibody's road to approval, are below the line; to see them and the timeline of breakthroughs behind them, subscribe.
Below the line, for paid subscribers: The full story: where it stands, how we got here and what's dated next; our labeled speculation on what it adds up to; and every source.