It took my savings and 14 years — but I’m about to beat arthritis

When Simon Westbrook was made redundant by Pfizer in 2011, it would have been simpler to seek lucrative employment overseas and forget all about an “idea on a piece of paper” that he had been developing.
Except he believed that that idea could lead to “one of the most important drugs ever”.
“Being the maverick I was, I said to my wife, ‘Shall we just start our own biotech company?’ ” he recalled.
With the support of Dominique, who also worked for the pharmaceutical giant and was made redundant at the same time, Westbrook set out alone on his creation.
It was not easy. He burnt through the couple’s savings, struggled to pay the mortgage and slept in his 1972 VW orange camper van to save money while attending biotech conferences at which he was trying to attract investors.
Finally in March, after a 14-year mission to develop a game-changing drug to treat osteoarthritis, Westbrook, now 54, was sitting in the courtyard of a church in the village of Colorno, Italy, when he received the news he had long been waiting for. The effectiveness of his medication had exceeded all expectations.
“We saw the data [from human trials on osteoarthritic patients] and thought, ‘Oh my gosh, it’s actually worked’,” he said. “We did have a bit of a bender for a few days to celebrate. How many people can say they have actually discovered something?”
Westbrook, who moved from Melbourne to study for a postdoctorate in physiology endocrinology at Cambridge University aged 26, is behind the drug known as LEVI-04, produced by his company, Levicept, which could revolutionise the treatment of osteoarthritis for the estimated 600 million sufferers worldwide.
The drug is based on a molecule he discovered while working at Pfizer, and can be delivered via a once-a-month EpiPen-style injection, where it restores protective processes to diseased joints and enables the regeneration of affected tissues. It works by blocking a compound that supports the nerve cells involved in transmitting pain signals to the brain.
It will also be an improvement on current treatments, such as multiple anti-inflammatory pills taken daily, which can cause painful gastrointestinal side-effects and increase the risk of heart attack or stroke, or powerful opioids which can be highly addictive.
The recently completed phase-two trial of 510 patients showed sufferers reporting huge reductions in pain, increased mobility and better mental health, as they found themselves unencumbered by their illness for the first time in years.
“There was one patient who said they couldn’t wait to get back to the clinic to get their jab,” he added. “They were saying, ‘Give me more of that LEVI magic.’ We had patients who were able to take up exercise again. We had one patient who said they had taken up boxing for the first time in 15 years.
“I think it’s going to be one of the most important drugs ever. I know that sounds silly to say. But the population is getting older, it’s getting heavier. And if you can get people able to move for the first time in ten years, they’ll be able to improve their life as well.
“I think it’s going to be a ground-breaking medicine. There’s no point living to your Nineties if your life is decrepit. You’ve got to have quality of life.”
More than ten million people in the UK suffer from osteoarthritis, the most common type of arthritis in the country. Symptoms include pain and stiffness, and it most commonly affects the knees, hips and the small joints of the hands.
It is hoped the drug — which is not a cure but will make the condition much less painful for sufferers — could also be used to treat rheumatoid arthritis and chemotherapy-induced pain in the future.
The successful phase-two trials were a welcome vindication for Westbrook’s sacrifices, after losing his job in Pfizer’s research and development facility in Sandwich, Kent, alongside 2,000 colleagues, when it was closed 13 years ago.
Westbrook, who describes himself as a “drug discovery guy”, had worked in research across cardiovascular ailments, urology and obesity for 17 years at the company. He discovered the protein which would lead to LEVI-04 during his time working on pain alleviation “on my own in the corner of the lab”.
“It was just an idea on a piece of paper when I was working there,” he said. “No more than that. And they [Pfizer] weren’t interested.”
On leaving the company, he acquired the intellectual property [IP] rights from his former employer, best known for its accidental discovery of Viagra, and embarked on a fundraising campaign to develop the medicine. It was far from easy.
During the first 18 months, he said: “We went through our savings to the point we couldn’t make mortgage payments. I remember well, my wife and I were walking down Oxford Street [in London] from one pitch to another, and she broke down saying, ‘We can’t do this any more’.”
An hour later, Westbrook was told he would be receiving an initial £500,000 investment from Kevin Johnson, an entrepreneur and biotech investor, who would work alongside him for the next decade.
Describing another fundraising round, Westbrook added: “One conference was at Sandown racecourse [in Esher, Surrey] and I camped the night before in my orange VW camper van nearby, before driving to the racecourse in the morning and parking alongside the Mercedes-Benz and BMW cars. The camper stuck out like a sore thumb.
“Kevin [Johnson] was at the conference and was asking who had brought the VW. When he found out it was mine, he said he had to invest because only a true entrepreneur or a madman would be camping in order to raise funds.”
Johnson confirmed the story. “I thought, ‘What crazy sod brings a camper van to a conference?’” he said. “It turns out it was this silly bugger who was running out of cash and trying to eke it out as long as he could. That was the moment I decided we were going to back this guy.”
To complicate matters, the first time Westbrook tried to create the molecule needed for the drug at scale, it “fell apart. You need to ferment my molecule, it’s a protein. So, basically, it’s like making beer. But it didn’t work and I wasted a ton of money. That was a pretty low point. But we worked out what was wrong and then made another batch and made the drug.”
Since seeking initial funding for the idea, Westbrook and his team have accrued £45 million of investment from a number of firms, including Pfizer, which has a small stake taken when they negotiated the IP deal with him.
Levicept’s next problem, however, was finding human “guinea pigs” to take part in clinical trials.
As osteoarthritis sufferers tend to be older, and the trials involved patients staying in hospital for four days for tests, volunteers were few and far between.
At one point, Westbrook even placed advertisements on Tube trains asking for volunteers “interested in being paid to help with medical research” to come forward, as well as leaving leaflets in pharmacies.
He was even “on the verge of recruiting off the street”. “When I saw someone hobbling over, I wanted to say, ‘Will you do my trial?’ But that was verging on ‘mad scientist’ territory,’” he added.
Professor Philip Conaghan of Leeds University led the recent clinical trial, which was conducted at sites across Europe and Hong Kong. He called the results “truly exceptional and clinically meaningful”.
A larger clinical trial is now planned which will treat patients in the UK and US. If successful, the treatment could be available in the UK, prescribed on the NHS, within three to four years.
Westbrook added: “It’s been a long and at times tortuous journey, and I want to thank everyone who has taken part in trials, believed in this project and supported us along the way.”