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By Meg Flippin, Benzinga
When it comes to neurological diseases, epilepsy is among the most common worldwide. At last check, about 50 million people suffer from this chronic non-communicable disease, with close to 80% living in low to middle-income countries. The risk of premature death among epilepsy patients is as much as three times higher than non-suffers. There are treatments for the seizures experienced by patients – 28 FDA-approved drugs at last count – but they don’t work for everyone. About one-third require surgery. It is those patients and others suffering from neurological disorders that Minnesota-based NeuroOne Medical Technologies Corp.(NASDAQ: NMTC) is targeting with its medical technology.
The company designs and manufactures high-definition, minimally invasive thin film electrodes which are used for intracranial monitoring. The electrodes are implanted inside the skull to record brain activity. That data helps surgeons better locate and remove the brain tissue causing seizures without impacting the rest of the brain. NeuroOne’s electrodes are intended to diagnose and treat several neurological conditions including epilepsy, Parkinson’s Disease and Essential Tremors. The company believes it has an edge over the current electrodes in application because they are thin, flexible and less bulky.
Better Than The Original?
NeuroOne’s Evo Cortical Electrode portfolio consists of various configurations of strips and grid electrodes, which are made with thin polyimide film — which, in a study by the Mayo Clinic, demonstrated reduced inflammation to the brain versus traditional silicone electrodes as the material is flexible, thin and weighs less. The electrodes are cleared by the FDA for recording, stimulation and monitoring of brain activity for less than 30 days. With the technology, doctors can identify the right foci zones to determine the best treatment for patients.
The company says its technology provides new options for surgical placement and potentially smaller incisions, lower inflammation compared to the bulky electrodes on the market, and also enables the pairing of diagnosis and therapeutics in one offering unlike other competitive technologies. With proven placement accuracy and enhanced signal quality, physicians can capture the vital data they need to support more confident diagnoses, according to NeuroOne.
NeuroOne is among a handful of medical technology companies that are taking novel approaches to treating brain diseases. Aneuvas Technologies Inc. (NASDAQ: ATITK) is one example. It's developing new technology to fill and heal aneurysms. Hong Kong-listed MicroPort NeuroTech Ltd. is another example, working on technology to help doctors overcome potential issues during hemorrhagic strokes. Meanwhile ORSIM develops a specialist flexible bronchoscope simulator to help train and support anesthesiologists. NeuroOne pegs its market opportunity at $100 million for diagnostic use. Other markets the company is looking to enter including ablation, drug delivery and spinal cord stimulation for back pain are already generating revenue in the billions of dollars.
Future Applications On The Horizon
The company recently received clearance from the FDA to use an sEEG electrode to record electrical activity in the brain for less than 30 days but also to ablate brain tissue in an effort to reduce or eliminate a patient’s seizure activity using the same device. This will hopefully reduce the number of surgeries and hospitalizations a patient has to experience. This system has the potential to ablate nervous tissue in other areas of the body. NeuroOne has already commented that they will pursue additional applications, starting with facial pain. In addition, the company has commented that they are developing a drug delivery electrode that can monitor the electrical activity of the brain after delivery of the drug or gene therapy. This technology could also be helpful for pharmaceutical and biotech companies in helping identify in the early phases of development if the therapy shows efficacy. This could save the company millions of dollars in development and clinical study costs earlier in the development process.
In addition, NeuroOne is also expanding its efforts into spinal cord stimulation for chronic back pain, last year announcing it successfully completed an animal implant of its novel thin film paddle leads for spinal cord stimulation. The devices are intended for the treatment of patients with chronic back pain due to multiple failed back surgery syndrome and intractable low back and leg pain. NeuroOne reports that results demonstrated the feasibility of the placement of a thin film paddle lead intended to treat chronic back pain due to multiple failed back surgeries. The company said more testing would be completed to optimize the design and placement. The company is also developing a percutaneous (through a needle) paddle lead placement system which would eliminate the need for an incision in the patient's back. The preliminary benchtop testing for this percutaneous approach has also been successfully completed. In January, NeuroOne presented a poster on pre-clinical experience with thin-film paddle leads at the North American Neuromodulation Society (NANS).
Millions of people suffer from epilepsy, Parkinson’s Disease, Essential Tremors and other neurological disorders, yet the treatments today largely fall short. NeuroOne is committed to changing that with its minimally invasive approach. It hopes its innovations will not only transform the treatment of brain diseases but also enhance patient outcomes, reduce procedural invasiveness and streamline diagnostic and therapeutic processes for patients around the globe.
Featured photo by Natasha Connell on Unsplash.
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