A Scottish start-up specialising in tendon disease has raised £8.75 million to conduct international clinical trials for a potential treatment for tennis elbow.
Known formally as lateral epicondylitis, tennis elbow is a form of tendinopathy which will affect one in 10 people in their lifetime. There is currently no approved therapy for tendinopathy.
Causeway, a spin-out from the University of Glasgow, is developing a treatment called TenoMIRä which mimics a natural small RNA molecule that is lacking in damaged tendons. Following successful initial results, the therapy will now go into Phase II trails.
READ MORE: Foreign money feeds Scotland's flourishing life sciences sector
The funding round has been led by Declan Doogan, an experienced pharmaceutical executive, biotech entrepreneur and an alumnus of the University of Glasgow Medical School. Existing investors Mediqventures, Scottish Enterprise and Glasgow University Holdings also contributed.
"These Phase I results were truly impressive and gave me the confidence to lead this financing round personally and to take an active role in the company’s operations,” said Mr Doogan, who will become the company's executive chairman.
Causeway chief executive and co-founder Derek Gilchrist added: "As a company, we’re excited by the potential of TenoMIRä; however, as someone with tennis elbow, I also understand its importance from the perspective of a future patient.
"Securing investment allows Causeway to continue TenoMiR’s development in a Phase 2 multi-centre trial in the US, Netherlands, and UK, which is a significant step towards TenoMiR’s ultimate approval for the treatment of tendinopathy.”
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