Industry Professionals Attend 2024 Neurotech Leaders Forum
Staff report
About 120 neurotech industry professionals attended the 24th annual Neurotech Leaders Forum in San Francisco earlier this month. Keynote speaker Ray Cohen, CEO of Axonics Inc., gave a timely and evocative keynote address on the first day of the conference, just days before Boston Scientific’s $3.7 billion deal for Axonics closed.
Cohen provided a number of details from his tenure at Axonics culminating with the Boston Scientific deal, but he also offered words of advice to neurotech startups. He said he got interested in the neurostimulation market back in 2013 after navigating a successful exit of a neurovascular firm, also to Boston Scientific. Cohen related that the Chinese acupuncture chart made an impression on him at the time. “You look at that chart and you go, ‘Oh, here’s all the neural targets, just laid out.’ Some of them are hard to reach—you may need to implant a lead to get to the right target. But this is a concept whose time has come.”
Cohen offered some cautionary tales from his experience. “If you’re going to go into a space and you’re going to compete against one of the big players in this industry, whether it’s Medtronic or Boston Scientific or Abbott, you’ve got to be careful,” he advised. “Because they have, a lot of people that are really interested in learning details about what you’re up to under the guise of considering the possibility of acquiring your company.”
Cohen also advised attendees not to be afraid to talk to the FDA. “That’s been one of the secrets to our success,” he said. He also stressed the importance of being adequately capitalized. He noted that Axonics raised $115 million in venture capital from 2013 through 2018. “So what was our valuation when we raised $115 million? The answer was $115 million,” he said, advising entrepreneurs to “keep it clean.” He also advised startups to be careful about who they accept investments from. “I didn’t take money from folks who were not aligned with our philosophy,” he said.
The conference also featured a number of panel discussions related to hot topics in the neurotech industry, and presentations from a dozen early-stage and startup firms in the space. On the first day of the conference, NBR senior consulting editor Jeremy Koff moderated a session devoted to the competitive outlook in the neuromodulation industry which also included Nandan Lad, a neurosurgeon from Duke University, Alexander Yeh from Neuspera, and Victor Pikov from Medipace. Panelists debated how may players the SCS market could accommodate. Yeh claimed there was a lot of room for competitors in the OAB market. Lad pointed out that patients are becoming more aware of the various therapy options available to them because of direct to consumer marketing.
NBR editor James Cavuoto moderated a session devoted to neurotech investment that included Suraj Mudichintala from Action Potential Venture Capital, Jordi Parramon from Nexus NeuroTech Ventures, and Nick Langhals from the National Institutes of Health. “We continue to remain bullish on the thesis that medtech devices can supplement or augment pharmaceuticals and have significant value,” Mudichintala said. His firm has invested $170 million to date. Parramon said his firm focuses exclusively on brain disorders.
NBR senior contributing editor JoJo Platt moderated a session on the brain-computer interface market that included Vikash Gilja, CSO of Paradromics, Craig Mermel, president of Precision Neuroscience, and Marcus Gerhardt, CEO of Blackrock Neurotech. Platt pointed out that the executives at the table represented $450 million in investments, including a recent $93 funding for Precision Neuroscience. “If we fail at executing, we’re not realizing a set of really compelling technology that could improve human life,” said Gilja. Gerhardt and Mermel agreed that the BCI field still needs considerably more investment. “We’ve raised a lot of money and it’s still not enough to say that we’re capitalized for the end goal of getting products out on the market,” Mermel said.
A session devoted to neurotech reimbursement featured Mark Domyahn from the J.D. Lymon Group and Katherine Neuenfeldt from Presidio Medical. Domyahn noted that his firm specializes in devices. “We don’t do drugs,” he quipped. “When you start thinking about your regulatory strategy, you better be thinking about your reimbursement strategy, because FDA doesn’t write check, Medicare does,” he said.
Neuenfeldt said she learned about reimbursement on the fly with several medtech firms, including J&J, Medtronic, Nevro, and now Presidio. “My advice to everyone is, figure reimbursement out early. Investors really care that you know this up front,” she said.
On the second day of the conference, Carolina Aguilar from INBRAIN Neuroelectronics gave an update on her firm’s activities with new materials in the BCI market. “When we look back in history, we see that every leap forward in humanity has been linked to a key material,” she said. “Graphene has very important capabilities that make it a great candidate for neural interfaces.”
A session on peripheral nerve stimulation featured Lawrence Poree from UCSF, Manfred Franke from NeuronOff, and Jon Ruais, formerly of Nalu Medical. “Our objective is to look at where pain starts and try to block the transmission from that injured neuron up to the brain,” Poree explained. “There are multiple sites along that pathway that allow us to interact, including in the periphery, which is always an ideal target if you can get there early enough. And if you can’t, then you go for spinal nerves.”
A session on closed-loop neuromodulation featured Scott Stanslaski from Medtronic, Martin Schuettler from CorTec, and Brett Wingeier from NeuroPace.
A session on consumer neurotech featured Emily Mirro, president of startup SynchNeuro Inc., Nathan Intrator, founder of Neurosteer, and Liron Nunez Weissman, CEO of Corundum Neuroscience.
A session on new materials and manufacturing methods featured Asheesh Divetia from Cirtec Medical, Eran Benjamin from MST, and Uli Gommel from Neo-Bionica.
In a conference wrap-up session, Neurotech Reports’ editorial team reflected on several themes brought up during the conference, while several attendees added their thoughts. Topics that were debated included whether expectations about the BCI market were unrealistic, how many competitors is too many, and whether there’s a significant market opportunity for consumer neurotech.
Executives from several neurotech startup firms gave presentations during two Entrepreneur Panels at the event. These included Kial Gramley from Backstop Neural, Ludovica Labruna from Magnetic Tides, Jeff Erb from Paxos Medical, Luca Ravagnan from Italian firm WISE srl, Amy Baxter from Harmonic Pain Solutions, Imanuel Lerman from InflammaSense, Inc., Luis De Taboada from JelikaLite, Pawel Soluch from Spinally Medical, Andy Gotshalk from Neurologic Solutions, and Roy Burstin from consumer neurotech firm Eno.
Cirtec Medical was Platinum sponsor of the conference, MST was Gold sponsor, while Valtronic, Velentium, and Neo-Bionica were Silver sponsors. Bronze sponsors were CorTec, Osypka, TTP, Focus, Iris Biomedical, and Corundum Neuroscience.