- Confirmed 85% recovery rate of regenerated cartilage strength in Harvard animal study
- Confirmed hyaline cartilage regeneration in Egyptian clinical trials
- "Set to become a game changer for chronic diseases"

▲ Osteoarthritis Patient Study Conducted in Egypt (2020-2021)

ROKIT Healthcare (KOSDAQ 376900, CEO Seokhwan You), a company specializing in AI-driven hyper-personalized organ regeneration platforms, has announced the full-scale expansion of global clinical trials for 'AI-driven cartilage regeneration' targeting patients with knee osteoarthritis (degenerative arthritis). The company presented a blueprint to shift the existing market paradigm from 'symptom relief-centered' to 'cartilage regeneration-centered.'

The core of ROKIT Healthcare lies in its AI-driven organ regeneration platform, which aims to directly prove the 'quality of regeneration' beyond simple 'pain relief.' The company previously confirmed an 85% recovery rate in the strength of regenerated cartilage—a key indicator of organ durability—in a large animal study conducted at Harvard. Furthermore, it has verified cartilage regeneration and the formation of hyaline-like cartilage through pilot clinical trials in Egypt and South Korea.

Starting this month, multinational clinical trials will be conducted across 17 global institutions in South Korea, the United States, South America, and Egypt. The company’s vision is to fundamentally restructure the 'symptom management market,' which currently relies on repetitive injections and hospital visits, into a model that values 'single-time regeneration surgery' and rapid functional recovery through its 'AI-driven Cartilage Regeneration Platform.'

ROKIT Healthcare's AI-driven cartilage regeneration clinical platform assesses patient conditions from multiple angles using MRI, X-ray, gait data, blood tests, and hyaline cartilage regeneration status. The AI analyzes this clinical data to predict the severity of damage and the speed of progression, creating a structure to transplant customized cartilage and soft tissue patches manufactured using autologous cell-based bioink and 3D bioprinting.

The company differentiates itself by aiming for the early proof of 'complete hyaline cartilage regeneration' through a 4-year long-term follow-up study of the Egyptian pilot trial. To strengthen its global research capabilities, Rokit Healthcare has signed a global research MOU with Professor Christian Lattermann, a world-renowned expert in orthopedics, and is proceeding with cartilage regeneration clinical trials and research on standard regeneration therapies.

Osteoarthritis already imposes a significant global scale and socioeconomic burden. It is estimated that there are approximately 600 million osteoarthritis patients worldwide, accounting for about 7.6% of the global population. Additionally, according to a study published in the international journal Osteoarthritis and Cartilage in 2021, the economic burden, including direct and indirect costs of osteoarthritis, amounts to 1–2.5% of the national GDP in developed countries such as the U.S. and those in Europe.

With the dual factors of increased load due to obesity and cartilage degeneration due to aging, knee osteoarthritis is being reclassified as a 'representative chronic disease' that drives a simultaneous surge in medical, rehabilitation, and socioeconomic costs. Consequently, Rokit Healthcare's AI cartilage regeneration is projected to become a game changer. While artificial joint replacement is an alternative when knee osteoarthritis progresses severely, the burden of revision surgery decades later due to aging, along with the recovery and rehabilitation periods and social costs, poses significant challenges for patients.

A ROKIT Healthcare official stated, "Our 'AI-driven Cartilage Regeneration Platform' will shorten recovery times through the regeneration of actual hyaline cartilage tissue at the stage before artificial joint replacement is required, thereby simultaneously improving patients' Quality of Life (QoL) and lowering social rehabilitation costs."