News

Turning Weapons into Arms There has not been an overwhelming amount of good news to emerge from the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq over the last several years. But one very significant and very positive development has been the emergence of the Revolutionizing Prosthetics program from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. The program, administered at Johns Hopkins University with collaborati…

Marketed Targeting One of the greatest technical challenges confronting the neurotechnology industry is identifying appropriate anatomical targets for neuromodulation, particularly for brain stimulation. In the few years that deep brain stimulation has been approved for treating neurological disorders, clinicians and researchers have used a number of different targets within the brain. For individuals with Parkinson’s disease, DBS therapy has targeted either the subthalamic nucleus or the globus pallidus internus.

Neuros Medical Seeks to Commercialize Nerve Block as Treatment for Pain ial director Neuros Medical Inc., headquartered in Willoughby, OH (about 20 miles east of downtown Cleveland) was launched in 2008 to bring to market Nerve Block, a selective and reversible neurostimulation technique for completely blocking transmission of impulses in targeted nerves. The company’s initial goal is to develop an…

Conflicts and Interests One of the little-noticed elements of the recently passed health care reform legislation in the U.S. is the incorporation of the physician payment sunshine act, which forces medical device and pharmaceutical manufacturers to report just about any kind of payment made to or on behalf of physicians. The bill was put forward largely at the behest of Sen. Charles Grassley (R-IA), despite the fact that he did not vote for the final health care bill.

Robotics Tools Augment Neurorehabilitation Market Advances in robotics technology are offering new opportunities for vendors of neurorehabilitation systems to enhance their product offerings. Robotic systems have been used in products such as the Lokomat, which helps physical therapists at 250 institutions worldwide deliver treadmill-based therapies to individuals with neurological disorders such as spinal cord injury.

EnteroMedics CEO Offers Explanation for Failed Obesity Trial EnteroMedics Inc., the St. Paul, MN manufacturer of neuromodulation systems for treatment of obesity, offered follow-up information on the company’s recently completed Empower study of vagus nerve block for treatment of obesity, which failed to meet its efficacy endpoints. Speaking at the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference earlier this mon…

Neurotech Reports Collaborates with International Neuromodulation Society on Online Database Neurotech Reports, the publisher of this newsletter, announced that it has reached agreement with the International Neuromodulation Society to distribute its online database of neuromodulation products and companies to members of the INS. The database is now available on the INS website, www.neuromodulation.com.

Neuromodulation Returns Press reports that Boston Scientific Corp. is contemplating the sale of its neuromodulation business sent shock waves through the industry earlier this month. As one of the three major players in the neuromodulation device space, along with Medtronic and St. Jude Medical, BSX has contributed to the perception of growth and maturity for the industry since it purchased Advanced Bionics in 2004.

Epilepsy Market Poised for New Device Competition , senior technical editor and James Cavuoto, editor For well over a decade, Cyberonics has enjoyed a monopoly on device-based approaches to treat epilepsy. The company’s VNS therapy system stimulates the vagus nerve to reduce the frequency or intensity of seizures in people with medically-refractory epilepsy. A long-term clinical study presented at the American Epilepsy Society’s 63rd Annual Meeting, held earlier this month in Boston, supported the efficacy of VNS.

Imaging Advances Promote Growth of DBS , senior technical editor One of the primary challenges to continued successful growth of deep brain stimulation is the complexity of the surgical implant procedure. The anatomical targets are small and difficult to visualize, and when the burr hole is made through the skull, the brain moves. Microelectrode recording is used at most centers to refine the locat…