Philip O'Keefe, one of Synchron's patients in the SWITCH clinical trial, was the first person in the world to tweet using a BCI device.
Source: Synchronous
Neurotechnology startup Synchron is ramping up production of its flagship brain-computer interface to prepare for commercial demand, as the company moves closer to bringing its device to market.
Synchron announced Thursday that it has acquired a minority equity stake in German manufacturer Acquandas, which has the unique ability to layer the metals that make up a component of the company's implant.
As part of the deal, Synchron will gain exclusive access to Acquandas' layering technology for medical devices, and Synchron CEO Tom Oxley and Chief Technology Officer Riki Banerjee will join the manufacturer's board of directors.
Founded in 2012, Synchron has developed a brain-computer interface, or BCI, called Synchron Switch. The stent-like device is inserted through the patient's blood vessels and allows people with limited physical mobility to operate technology such as smart home devices and cursors with their minds.
During initial studies, Synchron has so far implanted six patients in the US and four patients in Australia. The company will have to conduct additional trials demonstrating the safety and effectiveness of its device before regulators at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration grant approval for broader marketing.
Oxley said Synchron has worked with Acquandas for years, but the official partnership will help the company continue to innovate around implantable neurotechnology and scale to address a “very large unmet need.”
“We believe there are millions of people with paralysis who need this technology and we are preparing to produce in high volumes,” Oxley told CNBC in an interview.
Synchron declined to share the specific size of Synchron's stake in Acquandas or the exact number of devices it is producing.
A close-up of the Synchron device.
Courtesy: Synchrony
As the company works to increase its manufacturing, it also hopes to attract the interest of more potential patients. Synchron plans to launch an official patient registry in mid-February that will allow patients with motor or limb disabilities to stay up to date on trials and share details about their needs.
“We wanted to create a mechanism where people could express interest, and it will help us determine which U.S. clinical sites to focus on first,” Oxley said.
Although Synchron still has a long way to go, the company has already attracted the attention of investors and powerful competitors.
In 2022, Synchron announced a $75 million funding round that included funding from the investment firms of Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, owner of the BCI Neuralink company, asked several questions about Synchron during a meeting with Neuralink executives and engineers in July 2022, according to a Bloomberg report.
Like many other BCI companies, Neuralink's system is designed to be implanted directly into a patient's brain tissue using open brain surgery. When inserting a BCI directly into tissue, the quality of neural signals should be strong, but the nature of the procedure makes it inherently riskier.
Musk announced that Neuralink implanted its device in a human for the first time on Sunday and that the patient is “recovering well,” according to a post on X.
Synchron relies on a less invasive approach to implant its BCI that builds on existing endovascular techniques. The company's stent, called Stentrode, is equipped with tiny sensors and, after insertion, is inserted into the large vein next to the motor cortex.
Since Synchron's BCI is not inserted directly into brain tissue, the quality of brain signals is not as strong, according to the company. But the team believes the minimally invasive nature of the procedure will eventually make it more accessible.
“We should far surpass Stentrode,” Musk said at Neuralink's July meeting, according to Bloomberg. “And we're currently getting our butts kicked.”
