Congratulations to the Salford Royal Core Research Team, Professor Hector Chinoy (PI) and Dr James Lilleker for dosing the first patient globally in a study testing the efficacy and safety of a new treatment for a rare inflammatory muscle disease.

Immune-mediated necrotizing myopathy, a type of myositis where muscle damage causes weakness and fatigue, doesn’t yet have a cure, although there are treatments to help manage its debilitating symptoms.

The new Phase 2 study, sponsored by Ra Pharmaceuticals, Inc., is testing an investigational drug, zilucoplan, which is designed to prevent the body’s immune attack on muscle cells by blocking a component of the body’s immune system called the complement pathway.

It aims to recruit 24 patients worldwide, and the first was dosed at Salford Royal’s Clinical Research Facility on 3 December.

She is pictured (front) with Dr Lilleker (sub-investigator and clinical evaluator) and the research nursing team.