Causeway Therapeutics has been awarded a grant of £1.3m from Innovate UK to develop a promising new treatment for a common but costly musculoskeletal problem.

To treat tendinopathy in humans, Causeway has developed TenoMiR, which switches off disease pathways, restoring tendon function and structure.

The company will use this new grant to begin Phase 1 human trials for their new therapy for the treatment of tendinopathy in 24 patients early next year.

Dr Derek Gilchrist, Co-Founder and CEO of Causeway Therapeutics said  , “We believe TenoMiR is a novel regenerative therapeutic, with the potential to transform the treatment of tendon disease. We’re very grateful to Innovate UK for the funding to hopefully make this possible.”

Mr Neal Millar, co-founder and Chief Medical Officer, added: “Tendinopathy represents a serious unmet clinical need, with one in three GP consultations in the UK being due to soft tissue tendon disease.

The trials will see the TenoMiR technology – a replacement therapy – locally injected into injured tendons, with the hope it will restore the tendon to ‘injury-free’ levels and fault-free tendon repair.