April 2016 issue
April 30, 2016 | About 120 executives from pharmaceutical and neurotech device firms participated in the 11th annual Neurotech Investing & Partnering Conference in Boston, MA earlier this month. The event was sponsored by the Neurotechnology Industry Organization and NeuroInsights.
In a session devoted to research and development at large medical firms, Jeff Erb from Medtronic and Jeffrey Nye from Johnson & Johnson discussed issues affecting their companies’ decisions on investing in internal and external research programs. “Johnson & Johnson is a very big ship,” said Nye. “There’s nothing we can’t afford, in principle. What we can’t do is buy everything in our portfolio.” Nye said that J&J has used equity investment in licensing partnerships. The challenge, he said, is to create an integrated pipeline that blends internal and external development.
Erb said that the changing regulatory climate at the FDA is making Medtronic more willing to look at startups. He said the company is open to investing in firms that might not have access to a series A investment round. “We need their innovation to meet our growth expectations,” he said. Erb said that he like to partner with a firm that is aligned with his company’s strategic direction. But if Medtronic’s strategy changes, he wants the firm to be able to move forward without being stranded. Erb said that Medtronic wants strategic rights when it invests. The company may lead an investment round or take the entire round with an option to acquire the firm later. In the area of brain stimulation, Erb said Medtronic wants to proceed in the direction of closed-loop therapy.
Several startup early-stage neurotechnology firms made presentations at the conference. A spinoff from Georgia Tech called Sensory Innovations has licensed a noninvasive neuromodulation platform from UCLA for treating migraine. Richard diMonda, who serves as COO of the company, described the technology, which makes used of mechanical vibration transduction to block cranial nerve signals. The company has begun a trial of 20 patients at UCLA.
Stacy Chambliss from Valencia Technologies gave an overview of the company’s eCoin minimally invasive device for treatment of hypertension.
Mehran Talebinejad from a Canadian startup called NeuroQore described his firm’s rTMS system for treatment of depression. Founded in 2011, NeuroQore has developed a semiconductor switch that it says mitigates the confounding physiological effects of conventional magnetic pulses and improves therapeutic physiological effects. The stimulator that emits the pulse is guided by an automated robotic arm, which personalizes treatment for each patient according to brain scans. The semiconductor switch extends instrumentation lifespan significantly, allowing an increased number of pulses to be emitted per session and over the unit’s lifetime, which ultimately reduces costs per patient,
Hendrik Kjeldsen from a firm called Truust Neuroimaging described a cloud-based software service that dramatically increases the resolution of EEG brain data. Based on a 256 electrode EEG recording of the electric field generated by brain activity, and a model of the electrical properties of the head and brain, Truust estimates the corresponding magnetic field, and combines these two fields to reconstruct the electromagnetic energy flow at high spatial and temporal resolution across one million voxels inside the brain. Using visualization techniques, called particle systems, the system can show how energy flows along the electromagnetic field inside the brain, in 3D and over time.
A Boston company called PathMaker Neurosystems Inc. founded by Nader Yaghoubi presented its trans-spinal direct current stimulation system for patients with neuromotor disorders. The company’s MyoRegulator is a noninvasive device for treating patients with spasticity using a proprietary technology for multi-site neurostimulation. Patients with spasticity have damaged neural pathways that give rise to hyperexcitable spinal circuits, and PathMaker’s DoubleStim technology has been shown in published animal studies to suppress the hyperexcitability, thereby leading to reduced muscle spasticity.
PathMaker recently announced that it has launched a human clinical trial in conjunction with Northwell Health and The Feinstein Institute for Medical Research to evaluate the safety and efficacy of MyoRegulator for the treatment of spasticity. “Initiating our company’s first formal human clinical trial represents a significant milestone in our strategy to rapidly and efficiently bring to market an entirely new, non-invasive approach to treating spasticity,” said Yaghoubi, president and CEO of PathMaker. “We are delighted to be working with Northwell Health and The Feinstein Institute for Medical Research, leaders in the emerging field of bioelectronic medicine.”
Frank McEachern from MicroTransponder gave attendees an update on the company’s activity’s in the stroke and tinnitus markets. The company is planning to enter the European market for stroke rehabilitation shortly. In its recent clinical trial patients who received the company’s VNS therapy paired with rehabilitation had a three-fold improvement in response compared to the control group.
MicroTransponder also recently completed a four-site double-blind randomized control trial of its VNS therapy paired with tones for treatment of tinnitus. After 12 weeks the treatment group experienced 30 percent reduction in severity, compared to 5 percent in the control group.
Jason Riley from ArcheOptix Biomedical described his firm’s near-infrared imaging device for diagnosis of TBI and related disorders. The NIRD concussion imager detects structural abnormalities associated with concussion. Due to insufficient resolution capabilities, CT and MRI cannot image these structures. The company seeks to provide a quantifiable and objective test for the safe return to play/work/active duty, so as to reduce the risks associated with “Second Impact Syndrome.”
