ClearPoint Neuro, Inc. (Nasdaq: CLPT) (the “Company”), a global therapy-enabling platform company providing navigation and delivery to the brain, today announced a joint agreement with Blackrock Neurotech to develop an automated surgical solution for implanting Brain Computer Interfaces (BCIs) into patients with a wide range of neurological disorders including paralysis, ALS, blindness, hearing loss and more. This partnership will seek to leverage ClearPoint’s platform and software to deliver, for the first time, a clinical solution for surgeons that is more streamlined and effective than other BCI implantation surgeries performed to date.
“The challenge of making people walk, talk, move and feel again is an enormous one,” said Marcus Gerhardt, Co-Founder and CEO at Blackrock Neurotech. “To make this vision a reality, we believe in partnering and collaborating with the best in the field. We are excited that ClearPoint is joining us in this endeavor to provide their expertise in navigation and surgical processes to create an integrated solution.”
BCIs read, analyze, and translate brain activity into commands, which are then relayed to output devices that carry out desired actions. Blackrock’s Utah Array is the leader in implantable BCIs, with 29 human patients using Blackrock’s BCI implants for up to 7 years. As the only electrode array of its kind, FDA-cleared for temporary monitoring of brain electrical activity, Blackrock’s BCI is also being used to explore numerous functional applications including sleep, paralysis, chronic pain, ALS, and more.
“The partnership with Blackrock will allow us to leverage our expertise in neuro-navigation and robotic delivery to create a system capable of assisting surgeons to implant these BCI arrays in a predictable and replicable manner,” explained Joe Burnett, President and CEO at ClearPoint Neuro. “Automation and predictability are crucial to getting a sophisticated device like the Blackrock BCI out of the research domain and into the clinic. We are thrilled to be an enabling partner to Blackrock and the BCI market in a similar fashion to what we are doing in Biologics and Drug Delivery and Medical Devices as well.”
Under the agreement, Blackrock will help fund the development of this new surgical solution, which will leverage the ClearPoint platform and growing global installed base. Blackrock’s recent infusion of capital from re.Mind Capital and others was designed to accelerate enrollment in clinical trials, advance surgical procedures such as this, and prepare for a commercial launch across multiple clinical indications. The joint agreement between ClearPoint and Blackrock will further advance the accessibility of Blackrock’s portfolio of BCI implants to a growing patient population and represents a combined total addressable market in excess of $1.0 Billion annually for both the BCI implants and neuro-navigational systems.
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