News

Entrepreneurs and Industry Execs to Present at 2012 Leaders Forum Founders and CEOs of several startup and emerging neurotechnology firms are scheduled to give presentations at the 2012 Neurotech Leaders Forum, which will take place October 22-23 at the Radisson Hotel San Francisco Airport in Brisbane, CA. Among the entrepreneurs making presentations at the event are Jon Snyder, CEO of Neuros Medical in Cleveland, OH, Lee Gerdes, founder and CEO of Brain State Technologies, Inc.

Recovering from Setbacks Bad news beset two major players in the neurotechnology industry this month. Market leader Medtronic Neuromodulation received a warning letter from the FDA related to the company’s process of handling complaints. The company acted quickly to assure the market it would work with the FDA to resolve the matter. Perhaps more ominous was Cochlear Ltd.’s announcement of its financial results, which showed a decline in revenues for fiscal year 2012.

Neurotech Sleep Apnea Market Moves Toward Maturity The neurotechnology market for devices to treat obstructive sleep apnea moved closer to maturity in recent weeks as two vendors made major announcements. As competition heats up in this new space, a whole new class of patients and therapists will be exposed to the benefits of neurostimulation interventions. Earlier this month, ImThera Medical Inc.

Neural Engineers Come to Salt Lake City for 2012 Neural Interfaces Conference June 2012 About 500 neural engineers, researchers, clinicians, and vendors attended the 2012 Neural Interfaces Conference in Salt Lake City earlier this month. The biannual meeting is an offshoot of the NIH Neural Interfaces Workshop and it still receives funding from NIH as well as DARPA and the National Science Foundation.

The Retinal Implant Market Emerges The market for retinal prostheses, once thought to be a far-off possibility, is now a reality. Industry pioneer Second Sight Medical Products, a spinoff from the Alfred Mann Foundation, has achieved its first $1 million in product revenue in Europe and may well be on the market in the U.S. in a matter of months if its HDE application is approved [see vendor profile, p6].

Neurotech Vendors Make Presentations at Investing & Partnering Conference May 2012 Several executives of neurotechnology firms made presentations at the 2012 Neurotech Industry Investing & Partnering Conference, held in Boston, MA earlier this month. The event was hosted and NeuroInsights. The conference began with a session on investment chaired Health Ventures. Leuchter mentioned that neuro telemedicine is an area that hasn’t yet been embraced .

Government Certainty While not everyone is pleased with government and its role in healthcare, it’s safe to say that there is a little more certainty in Washington now that the U.S. Supreme Court has upheld President Obama’s Affordable Care Act. Healthcare providers and payors—and the medical device companies who do business with them—at least now have a firmer grasp on what lies in store for them in the years ahead as the new law gets implemented.

Fighting Paralysis For individuals with paralysis caused , there has not been a lot of new product activity in the area of neuroprosthetics in recent years. Although new functional electrical stimulation systems for assisted breathing and for foot-drop have been approved, these indications serve a minority of the SCI community. In part because of the overall tardiness of getting FDA approval for ne…

Let’s Use Our Head with Brain Safety This has been a challenging month for the medical device industry, and St. Jude Medical, in particular. The company temporarily pulled its Brio DBS system off the market in Europe, reportedly citing header problems in a letter to clinicians. And St. Jude was thrashed in a New York Times article about medical device safety. Although the article didn’t mention neu…

Diabetes Market Presents New Neurotech Opportunity January 2012 The market for diagnosing and treating diabetes offers a new opportunity for neurotechnology device manufacturers. The increase in incidence of Type II diabetes in recent years is one demographic factor pointing to this opportunity. The prevalence of diabetes is more than 20 million in the U.S. with another 80 million in pre-diabetic individuals.