Professor Sir Ravinder Maini and Professor Sir Marc Feldmann have jointly received The Royal Society’s Royal Medal (Applied) for inventing anti-TNF therapy to treat rheumatoid arthritis (RA), bringing it from bench to bedside in one of the biggest success stories of modern medicine.
Professor Sir Ravinder Maini, President of the Kennedy Trust, and Professor Sir Marc Feldmann, Emeritus Professor at the Kennedy Institute, forged a partnership in early 1980s which not only changed the nature of therapeutics but led a revolution in the treatment of inflammatory diseases. The repercussions of the discovery of anti-TNF therapy have been immense, not only in rheumatology and medicine, but also providing cost-effective therapeutic alternatives to chemical drugs. This changed the drug development strategy of the pharmaceutical industry and the face of rheumatology.
The history of anti-TNF began when Feldmann and Maini’s early partnership led to a discovery that a protein called Tumour Necrosis Factor Alpha (TNF-α) played a key role in joint inflammation.
In the 1990s, their research, supported by the Kennedy Trust, showed that blocking TNF-α with an antibody (anti-TNF) reduces joint inflammation in mice. Despite considerable scepticism amongst the scientific, clinical and pharmaceutical communities, they went on to pioneer key clinical trials and demonstrated that anti-TNF used in combination with low dose Methotrexate results in significant enhancement in quality of life and protects joint damage in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients. This method of treatment became the standard of care for RA patients.
Their research laid the groundwork for biologics to improve the quality of life for millions of people suffering from autoimmune diseases including juvenile RA, ankylosing spondylitis, psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis, Crohn’s disease, and ulcerative colitis. New conditions are continually being explored including recent research into using anti-TNF to treat COVID-19.
Professor Dame Fiona Powrie, Director of the Kennedy Institute congratulated Feldmann and Maini on their Royal Society Medal and said: ‘Few scientists have had such an impact on the therapy of a spectrum of hard-to-treat and life-shortening chronic inflammatory and tissue destructive diseases. Ravinder and Marc’s discoveries have been hugely impactful, one for the progress of molecular medicine and two improving the quality of life of millions of patients with disabling and life-threatening disease.’
The annual Royal Society Awards recognise exceptional research achievements through a series of prestigious medals and prizes.
Read more about the revolutionary anti-TNF discovery story in the Kennedy Trust’s digital booklet ‘Building on a breakthrough: the lasting impact of biologic therapy.’
This article was originally published by the Kennedy Institute of Rheumatology.
