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

  

SmartTRAK’s survey of interventional pain physicians reveals valuable insights into current and future trends in interventional pain management and peripheral nerve stimulation (PNS)

SmartTRAK recently conducted a survey of 30 interventional pain physicians, including 18 doctors who perform PNS, to gain insight into the current state of interventional pain management and identify future trends in the field. This includes physician use of SCS, DRG Stimulation, short- and long-term PNS, RFA, TDD, Regenerative Medicine injections and MIS spine procedures, with an emphasis on PNS companies and technologies.

This comprehensive study sheds light on procedure trends, preferred treatment approaches, physicians' perspectives on PNS and more!

Key questions include:

• What interventional pain procedures are expected to grow the most in the next 12-24 months?
• What minimally invasive spine procedures do physicians think will increase the most in the next few years?
• What are expected procedure volumes for Regenerative Medicine injections?
• What are the most preferred treatment approaches for different chronic pain conditions?
• What are physicians' impressions of the different PNS technologies/brands?
• What are the top targets for PNS and what's driving and limiting physician adoption of PNS?
• What technology improvements do physicians want to see in PNS devices?

Click the button below if you are interested in purchasing SmartTRAK’s Interventional Pain Management and Peripheral Nerve Stimulation Survey. Be The Expert with the latest insights and trends in the field and equip yourself with valuable knowledge. Click Now!

Rebecca Wilkins, DVP R&D Neuromodulation for Abbott, discusses the Eterna SCS, strategies for penetrating the market for PDN, the latest initiatives for DBS and DRG and what’s next for the Company in an interview with SmartTRAK.

Rebecca Wilkins, Divisional Vice President, Research and Development, Neuromodulation at Abbott, discusses Eterna, the Company’s newest rechargeable spinal cord stimulator, strategies for penetrating the market for painful diabetic neuropathy (PDN), the latest initiatives in deep brain stimulation and what’s next in terms of research and innovation an interview with SmartTRAK. 

To find out more, listen to the interview by clicking on the following video (19:41 min). A link to download a complete transcript of the interview is also provided below...just click Continue Reading.

Saluda Medical President and CEO Jim Schuermann discusses the Company, the Evoke System and changing the game in SCS in an interview with SmartTRAK

With the US launch of the Evoke System, Saluda Medical is changing the game in spinal cord stimulation (SCS). At the North American Neuromodulation Society (NANS) Annual meeting in Las Vegas in January, researchers presented impressive 36-month data from the Company’s Evoke Study and the Company was showcasing its Evoke System for the first time on the NANS exhibit hall floor. As the first commercially available closed-loop SCS system using evoked compound action potentials (ECAPs), Evoke is unlike anything on the market. The technology automatically adjusts stimulation to maintain precise and consistent neural activation to the spinal cord for the treatment of intractable low back and leg pain. The Company received FDA PMA for Evoke in February 2022 and announced a limited US commercial release in December 2022, calling it the first and only ‘SmartSCS” in the US.

Saluda Medical President and CEO Jim Schuermann discusses bringing Evoke System to market, the Company’s US launch and commercialization plans, the newest generation of Evoke, his vision for the future and Evoke’s potential impact on the market in an interview with SmartTRAK. Click the button below to download and read a complete transcript of the interview.