£1m funding adds muscle to firm treating tendon issues

● University spinout eyeing market worth nearly £4bn ● Backing in part from SIB to assist commercialisation

A University of Glasgow spinout developing a new treatment for tendon problems in humans and horses has received funding of £1 million as it eyes a market worth almost £4 billion globally.

Causeway Therapeutics develops therapies for tendon injuries and disorders, known as tendinopathies, which affect about one in ten people in their lifetime and cost the NHS £250m a year.

The firm has now been given the seven-figure sum by Mediqventure and the Scottish Investment Bank (SIB), the investment arm of Scottish Enterprise, to help fully commercialise its technology.

Its lead product, Tenomir, is a replacement for a natural regulator of the production of tendon-strengthening collagens that is depleted in tendinopathy.

The relevant discovery was made by Causeway co-founders Derek Gilchrist and Neal Millar while working in the laboratory of Iain Mcinnes at the University of Glasgow’s Institute of Infection, Immunity & Inflammation.

Gilchrist said: “We’re delighted that Causeway is receiving the backing of Mediqventures and SIB. Translating our detailed understating of the molecular processes driving tendinopathy into a promising therapy has been a true multidisciplinary collaboration between scientists, surgeons and veterinarians in Glasgow and internationally.”

Declan Doogan, a partner at Mediqventures, is to join Causeway’s board as chairman, and said: “Our lead product is a completely novel approach to tendon disease.”

Kerry Sharp, head of the SIB, said: “Scottish Enterprise, through the [SIB], is delighted to be co-investing with Mediqventures to help the company fully commercialise its technology. We have supported Causeway Therapeutics through our High Growth Ventures Programme to help with company formation, research and now investment to help it grow to the next stage. We look forward to working alongside [it] to help it achieve its potential, both in Scotland and internationally.”

Causeway, which is locating itself at the University of Glasgow’sclinicalinnovationzone at the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital, is also developing a therapy for horses.

Jon Cooper, VP knowledge exchange & innovation at the university, said: “We are thrilled that Causeway Therapeutics has completed its investment round and that the company is now in a position to drive forward the development of this highly innovative therapeutic approach.” Aberdeenshire has welcomed its first trampoline park after property consultancy CBRE secured premises at Highclere Business Park in Inverurie on behalf of Jam-tech Scotland. It has taken a ten-year lease on the warehouse that will home Skyline Trampoline Park. Iain Landsman, associate director at CBRE in Aberdeen, said: “As the downturn in the energy sector continues to affect so many businesses it is a great time for landlords to look at alternative uses.”