Medical technology firm Medtronic has acquired US privately-held company Stimgenics for an undisclosed sum.
Based in Bloomington of Illinois, Stimgenics has developed a novel spinal cord stimulation (SCS) waveform called Differential Target Multiplexed (DTM) SCS.
Delivered through Medtronic Intellis platform, Stimgenics’ SCS is a new programming option for the treatment of patients with chronic pain.
Medtronic’s Intellis platform, which uses Overdrive battery technology, is claimed to provide the world’s smallest implantable neurostimulator. It also uses SureScan MRI and AdaptiveStim technology.
The company will present the three-month results from a randomised control trial (RCT) assessing DTM against conventional SCS at the North American Neuromodulation Society (NANS) 23rd annual meeting in Las Vegas, which will take place from 23 to 26 January.
The trial will continue to assess outcomes through 12 months follow-up.
Medtronic restorative therapies group’s pain therapies business president Dr Marshall Stanton said: “We believe that DTM therapy will advance the treatment of chronic pain, supported by clinical evidence and preclinical research on a neuronal-glial mechanism of action.”
The DTM waveform involves a novel mechanism that modulates both neurons and glial cells
The DTM waveform is believed to employ a novel mechanism that modulates both neurons and glial cells, helping to better understand the SCS mechanisms of action.
Stimgenics’s DTM waveform was evaluated in animal models, which demonstrated significant reversal of pain behaviours compared to either low frequency or high frequency alone.
The preclinical studies evaluating the genome of nerve-injured animals revealed that the DTM waveform can impact more in the neural-glial interaction than other frequencies alone.
Stimgenics founder and lead investigator Dr Ricardo Vallejo said: “Stimgenics’ research is deeply rooted in clinical science that began with animal work more than a decade ago.
“Our preclinical data demonstrated that the modulation of both neurons and glial cells may return glial cells to their normal state and modify how they interact with neurons, which could normalize biological processes and break the pain cascade.”
In December 2019, Medtronic acquired US-based digital health technology company Klue for an undisclosed sum.
