ASPN Chairman Tim Deer, MD, discusses the research and innovation at ASPN 2024 and the society’s collaborative approach to improving care for patients with chronic intractable pain in an interview with SmartTRAK.

Timothy R. Deer, MD, chairman of the American Society of Pain and Neuroscience (ASPN), discusses the society's goals, its rapid growth, and how ASPN is collaborating with different stakeholders to improve patient care and offer a wider range of new and innovative treatment options for patients with chronic intractable pain. To find out more, including what’s new in neuromodulation, minimally invasive spine and regenerative medicine, listen to the following video recorded live at the ASPN 2024 Annual Conference held July 11-14, 2024 in Miami Beach, FL. A link to download the complete transcript of the interview is also provided below. 

SmartTRAK: Anne Staylor here with SmartTRAK. I'm at the beautiful Fontainebleau Hotel in balmy Miami Beach, Florida at the American Society of Pain and Neuroscience Annual Conference. Today is the last day of the conference and I have the pleasure of talking with Dr. Tim Deer, the chairman of ASPN. Dr. Deer, thank you for talking with me today.

Dr. Tim Deer: Anne, thank you so much for having me. It's a great pleasure to talk to you and thank you for coming to our meeting.

Yes. Well, as you know, I think three years ago was the last time I was at your meeting, and I've had a colleague cover it who lives on the East Coast since then. Now I'm back covering the meeting and wow, has it grown exponentially since you and Dr. Sayed co-founded this meeting. I think this year, there's been a lot of energy and vibrancy around the content and in the exhibit hall and honestly, there's so much news for me to cover.

But before we get into the meeting, I thought it'd be a good idea to have you start by talking about the meeting itself, how it's grown, what the attendance has been this year, et cetera. And then what have been some of the key goals of society? And what have you and your vice chair, Dr. Sayed, been working toward as a society since you established the meeting?

INS President Dr. Marc Russo and INS President-Elect Dr. Konstantin Slavin discuss the current “state of the union” in neuromodulation, how the field is evolving and the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead in an interview with SmartTRAK at INS 2024.

At the 16th International Neuromodulation Society World Congress (INS 2024) held in Vancouver, Canada, Dr. Marc Russo, INS president, and Dr. Konstantin Slavin, INS president-elect, discussed the current “state of the union” in neuromodulation, how the field is evolving, where it’s going and trends in research, technology and clinical practice in an interview with SmartTRAK. They also discussed challenges and opportunities in the field, how the INS is addressing recent criticisms about neuromodulation and the promise and potential of neuromodulation across a wide range of clinical applications. 

To find out more, including the promising indications and areas of growth for spinal cord stimulation (SCS) and deep brain stimulation (DBS), click on the following video to listen to the interview recorded live at INS 2024 (51:53 min). Click hereto download a complete transcript of the interview. Topics by timecode are provided below. 

Adam Hattan, VP of marketing for Route 92 Medical, discusses the SUMMIT MAX trial and provides an update on the company and products in an interview with SmartTRAK.

Route 92 Medical (R92) is raising the bar and advancing the treatment of acute ischemic stroke through its 250-patient SUMMIT MAX clinical trial, the first randomized controlled trial to evaluate the safety and effectiveness of “super-bore” 0.088” aspiration catheters. The company recently announced enrollment is complete in SUMMIT MAX, which features the company’s Monopoint Reperfusion System, including the HiPoint 88 and HiPoint 70 Reperfusion Catheters and the Tenzing Catheters. HiPoint is currently approved by the FDA as an access catheter, but the company plans to submit the results of SUMMIT MAX to the FDA to obtain the NRY indication, which would allow physicians to use the device on label as an aspiration catheter.

For an update on R92, its products and what SUMMIT​ MAX means for the company and market, SmartTRAK interviewed Adam Hattan, R92’s vice president of marketing. Click on the video below to listen to the interview, recorded via Google Meet (19:48 min). A link to download the complete transcript of the interview is also provided below.

Medtronic executives discuss how the Company is making waves in interventional pain, minimally invasive spine and deep brain stimulation in an interview with SmartTRAK at NANS 2024.

Medtronic’s David Carr, vice president and general manager of Pain Interventions, and Amaza Reitmeier, vice president and general manager of Brain Modulation, discuss the Company’s latest news, research and innovation in an interview with SmartTRAK at the North American Neuromodulation Society (NANS) 2024 Annual Meeting held January 18-21 in Las Vegas, Nevada.

To find out more, including the Company’s priorities and vision for interventional pain, minimally invasive spine and deep brain stimulation, click on the following video to listen to the interview (32:30 min). Topics by timecode are provided below, and you can click the button to download a transcript of the interview.

Interview Topics by Timecode:

00:27 David Carr introduction and background. Overview of Medtronic’s top news at NANS and the importance of the Company’s broad portfolio of pain intervention solutions, including stimulation, targeted drug delivery and interventional spine. 

04:28 Overview of Medtronic’s presence at NANS regarding clinical and scientific research vs competitors. Highlights of clinical data from Australian ECAPs study to support the introduction of the Inceptiv Spinal Cord Stimulation (SCS) system, what’s next for Inceptiv and how Inceptiv differs from other ECAP-based SCS devices. Discussion of other research and evidence to support expanded indications and health economics. Company strategies for leveraging data to drive adoption, reimbursement and growth in non-surgical refractory back pain and diabetic painful neuropathy (DPN),

The North American Neuromodulation Society (NANS) is celebrating its 30^th anniversary in 2024 and is once again bringing together the leading clinicians, researchers and manufacturers to Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas for the NANS 2024 Annual Meeting, to be held January 18-21. To get you up to speed before the meeting, SmartTRAK has put together highlights of recent neuromodulation news. The following is just a small sampling of recent Neuromodulation-related news and updates from around the world compiled, reviewed and posted in real-time every day by the expert analysts at SmartTRAK.

SmartTRAK will be attending NANS 2024 from January 18-21. If you'd like to meet with us in person, please reach out to Anne Staylor, SmartTRAK’s Executive Editor and VP & GM, Neuro Therapies, at anne.staylor@smarttrak.com, or just click the button below.

Nevro* (NVRO) announced it acquired VYRSA Technologies*, a privately held company focused on the minimally invasive treatment of chronic sacroiliac joint (SI Joint) pain. According to the Company, VYRSA is the only SI joint company that manufactures and supports a complete portfolio of FDA-cleared, state-of-the-art SI joint fusion devices. The acquisition was signed and closed on Nov 30, 2023. 

NVRO paid $40MM at closing and agreed to pay up to an additional $35MM in cash or stock tied to milestones. NVRO CEO Kevin Thornal said VYRSA offers differentiated implants to the Company’s current call point of physicians and will help drive company growth, adding that the technology will help bring long-term pain relief to the 15-30% of people suffering with chronic low back pain associated with the SI joint.

The US MIS SI Joint Fusion Market is the fastest-growing segment in the US Spine Market and a growing number of pain physicians are performing these procedures. According to SmartTRAK’s recently published 2023 US MIS SI Joint Market Report, this market is projected to grow at +18% CAGR over the next five years and 53+ MIS SI Joint Fusion systems are now commercially available in the US. See 2023 MIS SI Joint Fusion Market Report*.

The Company also announced the closing of a six-year, $200MM term loan credit facility to be used to repurchase the majority of its 2025 Convertible Notes and for working capital and other corporate purposes. NVRO CFO Rod MacLeod noted that the Company was pleased to refinance a majority of its debt and push the maturity out to 2029 while limiting equity dilution to 2.6MM warrant shares. 

Medtronic Neurovascular President Dan Volz discusses expanding patient access to neurovascular therapies through innovation and globalization in an interview with SmartTRAK.

Medtronic Neurovascular President Dan Volz discusses innovation, globalization and the Company’s plans to double the number of neurovascular patients treated annually in three years in an interview with SmartTRAK. Volz said the Company is driving growth in Neurovascular through innovative business models and strategic investments in remote connectivity and the Medtronic Neurovascular Co-Lab Platform, a novel incubator designed to accelerate innovation in stroke care and treatment. To find out more about the Company and its latest innovations, click on the video to listen to the full interview (27:30 min). To download a transcript of the complete interview, just click the button below.

Anne Staylor here with SmartTRAK. Today I have the pleasure of interviewing Dan Volz, president of Medtronic Neurovascular. Dan, thank you for speaking with me today.

Dan Volz: It's my pleasure. It's good to talk to you.

I haven't talked to you for a while and I was hoping to catch up with you at SNIS when it was here in San Diego. Now that we are talking, let's just start broadly and talk from your perspective, what's important for us to know about Medtronic Neurovascular and what are your top priorities for fiscal year 2024?

DV: It's good to see you and I'm sorry that I missed you down in San Diego. That was a pretty quick up and back for me, but for us obviously it's about the patients and we had a pretty important milestone in 2022. In a 12-month period we helped treat 250,000 people, so that was a great celebration for us as a business. But I think even more importantly, it kicked off our strategic planning process to double that number in three years. And so everything that we do is centered on how do we drive toward that number? And there's a lot that goes into that, but it starts with obviously innovation and how are we innovating in our portfolio? What are we doing organically and what are we looking at inorganically to drive toward that number? And you know these statistics as well as anyone, there's 15 million strokes and we only treat five to 600,000 of them a year ...

To download and read the transcript of the complete interview with Dan Volz, president of Medtronic Neurovascular, by SmartTRAK's Anne Staylor, Executive Editor, VP & GM of Neuro Therapies, just clickthe button below.

SmartTRAK constantly monitors the worldwide MedTech industry, sifting through the noise to present to our subscribers the most relevant international news, trends, new products, patents, financial data and competitor developments in the global Life Sciences industry. Contact Us if you'd like to learn how to receive these expert insights daily. Our users think it's the perfect way to start their day.

The following is just a small sampling of recent Neurovascular market updates from around the world compiled, reviewed and posted daily by our SmartTRAK analysts.

New Products:

• ZOOM* - Imperative Care* 
  

  Imperative Care announced the completion of first cases using the recently FDA-cleared Zoom 88 Support catheter. One of the cases was an AIS patient with a tandem occlusion treated at Erlanger Health System in Chattanooga, TN. SmartTRAK reported FDA clearance of the device on Jun 15.

• MicroPort*

   MicroPort NeuroTech announced in May 2023 that it has completed the first clinical implantation of its NUMEN Detachable Embolization Coil for neurovascular aneurysm treatment in both the UK and Ireland.

• EOSolutions Launches Dr. Banner BGC

   EOSolutions announced the full commercial launch of its Dr. Banner, Balloon Guide Catheter (BGC), developed in collaboration with InNeuroCo. According to the Company, the BGC features a 0.091 ID, proximal stability, distal trackability and a compliant polyurethane balloon.

Patents:

• phenox*
  

  phenox GmbH’s US Patent Application “Insertion System For Implants For Treatment Of Bifurcation Aneurysms” was published disclosing a Y-shaped tubular implant and Y-shaped insertion catheter for bifurcation aneurysm treatment. 20230233347

• Aspiration Catheter with an Adjustable Tip

  The Univ of Toledo’s US Patent Application “Aspiration Catheter With An Adjustable Tip For The Intracranial Circulation” was published disclosing a neurovascular aspiration catheter with an adjustable tip controlled by pull wires. 20230233221