According to reports by the Chicago Tribune, Takeda Pharmaceuticals' Uloric drug has received FDA's approval for treatment of gout - a painful joint disease causing inflammation, severe pain, and warmth in affected joints. Earlier, in November, FDA's arthritis advisory committee, I a 12-0 voting, had recommended approval of Uloric for chronic gout.

An inflammatory form of arthritis resulting from excessive levels of uric acid in the blood, gout has nearly five million victims in US alone, mostly healthy middle men, above
40 years of age. As a natural process, uric acid gets dissolved in the blood, to be expelled out of the body, in urine.

However, high levels of uric acid result in the formation of piercing crystals, which get deposited in the joints; thereby causing extreme pain as well as inflammation. With the first attack of gout generally in the big toe, the disease can intensify to the point of causing abnormalities.

The new once-a-day Uloric drug, manufactured by the Deerfield, Illinois-based Takeda, helps reduce the levels of uric acid.

In response to the FDA approval of the drug, Alan MacKenzie, Takeda's president and CEO, said: "We are pleased to offer a new treatment option, the first in 40 years, to the more than five million Americans who have hyperuricemia associated with gout, fulfilling an unmet need."