Mindmaze SA continued to add significant funds to its coffers with $105 million as part of a series B financing round, following a $125 million debt financing in October. The new money brings total funding to more than $300 million for the company’s virtual reality-based digital neurotherapeutics platform. Its successful fundraising has pushed the company into unicorn status, making it the first Swiss firm to be valued at more than $1 billion.
With an ambitious goal of bringing 24/7 electroencephalogram (EEG) capabilities to hospitals across the country, Epitel Inc. closed a $12.5 million series A financing round that it plans to use to fund the initial pilot for commercialization of its wearable, wireless EEG platform. The Epilog platform received FDA clearance for use in hospital emergency departments and critical care units last year.
The U.K. National Institute of Health and Care Excellence has endorsed the use of stereotactic radiosurgery as a treatment of trigeminal neuralgia (TN) after hearing from a patient group, promising more clinical bandwidth for these systems.
Blue Note Therapeutics Inc. took a new approach to expanding its pipeline of prescription digital therapeutics (PDT) with an exclusive licensing agreement with the University of Sydney for Conquerfear, a metacognitive intervention that helps cancer survivors cope with the fear of disease recurrence. Blue Note has developed its PDTs internally to date but hopes to convert Conquerfear’s elements, which are typically delivered face-to-face, into a PDT for the U.S. and Canada. As a digital therapy, the program could potentially reach many more patients.
LONDON – Three patients with complete spinal cord injury are able to walk independently after having specialized electrodes implanted below their lesions. The details were published in Nature Medicine on Feb. 7. This is a significant new milestone for the researchers at École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Switzerland, who in 2018 delivered proof that electrical stimulation can reactivate spinal neurons, in that case in three patients with partial spinal cord injury. “Here for the first time, we have developed purpose-made technology in order to precisely stimulate the spinal cord to restore movement after paralysis,” said Gregoire Courtine, professor of spinal cord repair at EPFL.
Combining Sarepta Therapeutics Inc.’s gene editing technology and Genedit Inc.’s Nanogalaxy platform to treat neuromuscular disorders shows promising potential, the companies reported. A year into the research collaboration, Genedit’s polymer nanoparticles have demonstrated the ability to deliver therapeutic cargo to specific muscle tissue following system administration of targeted genetic medicines.
While comments continue to pour in, both in opposition and support, regarding the U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ (CMS) proposed national coverage decision that would restrict Medicare coverage of monoclonal antibodies intended to treat Alzheimer’s to those used in CMS- or NIH-approved clinical trials, some groups also are appealing to Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Xavier Becerra to step into an HHS agency turf war.
Galvani Bioelectronics Ltd. reported the first patient implanted with its experimental direct splenic nerve stimulation therapy for rheumatoid arthritis (RA). The first-in-human implant is part of a small trial at the NHS Greater Glasgow & Clyde Health Board in Scotland.
South Korea’s Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology (GIST) has completed a preclinical study for a noninvasive therapy for Alzheimer’s disease. The "ultrasound-based gamma entrainment” technique involves syncing up gamma waves, or brain waves above 30 Hz, with an external oscillation of a given frequency. This happens naturally by exposing a subject to a repetitive stimulus, such as sound, light, or mechanical vibrations.
Akili Interactive Inc. is the latest in a growing field of med-tech startups that are merging with special purpose acquisition companies as a backdoor path to an initial public offering. On Wednesday, the digital medicine company reported plans to combine with Social Capital Suvretta Holdings Corp. I in a deal valued at approximately $1 billion.
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