[August 18, 2014] |
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electroCore Appoints Piper Jaffray to Deal with Growing Interest from Pharma
BASKING RIDGE, N.J. --(Business Wire)--
electroCore, a leader in the burgeoning field of electroceuticals, has
appointed Piper Jaffray to assist in discussions with pharma companies
who are interested in partnering with it on the commercialization of its
breakthrough non-invasive vagus nerve (nVNS) stimulation therapy.
"The interest from pharma, medical devices and even technology companies
has grown considerably over the last six months" commented CEO and
founder JP Errico. "We wanted to explore all the opportunities for our
future, from partnership to remaining independent. We therefore had
discussions with several banks to help us with this process and chose
Piper Jaffray. We are under no pressure to do a deal as we are fully
funded until 2016. However, as we move from proving that nVNS is a
promising treatment for primary headache, to rolling out a sales
organization we wanted to be mindful of all our options."
electroCore, a US based company, has developed non-invasive Vagus Nerve
Stimulation (nVNS) self-administered therapies, which are
self-administered by patients for the treatment of multiple conditions
in neurology, psychiatry, respiratory and other fields. Initial focus is
on primary headache (migraine and cluster headache), with trials
continuing in respiratory and gastric motility disorders, depression and
anxiety.
In Europe, electroCore's nVNS technology has a CE mark for primary
headache, bronchoconstriction, epilepsy, gastric motility disorders, and
depression and anxiety. It also has regulatory approval for the acute
and/or prophylactic treatment of cluster hedache, migraine and
medication overuse headache in South Africa, India, New Zealand,
Australia, Colombia, Brazil and Malaysia, and in Canada for cluster
headache. US approval is expected in 2015.
electroCore recently reported - July 1st - that its
successful funding initiative of $40 million, announced in April last
year, has been oversubscribed by $10 million by all parties including
Merck's Global Health Innovation Fund and private equity groups Easton
Capital and Core Ventures. The final tranche of $15 million of the $40
million was optional but following discussions between the investors
this was not only made compulsory but increased by $10 million to a
total of $50 million. The company reports having more than $25 million
still at its disposal.
electroCore has also recently reported on findings of two of four
clinical studies (three against a sham device and one against standard
of care), full details of which will be presented at the European
headache (EHMTIC) meeting in Copenhagen in mid-September this year on
the prevention and treatment of migraine and cluster headache.
At the American Headache Society (AHS) in June preliminary results of
the US sham controlled pilot study that examined the use of
electroCore's non-invasive vagus nerve stimulation therapy (nVNS) in the
prevention of chronic migraine were presented showing that the study met
its endpoint of safety, and demonstrated a reduction in the number of
headache days per month for patients using the active device. The study
further suggests that patients who remained on therapy for longer
periods of time, may enjoy progressively larger decreases in headache
days over the period they are on therapy.
Earlier in June electroCore reported preliminary results of a
multi-center, randomized, trial across Europe. The trial was found to
have met its primary endpoint of statistical significance in reducing
the number of cluster headache attacks when compared with the standard
of care. During weeks three and four following the beginning of therapy,
the number of cluster headache attacks per week was reduced by 46.3% in
patients treated with nVNS compared with 12.5% (p=0.002) in patients
treated with the best available standard of care.
Dr. Charly Gaul, Director of the Migraine and Headache Clinic
Königstein, Germany and the principle investigator of this study
commented; "This study is one of the few well controlled, randomized
studies of any preventative treatment for cluster headache. The ability
of electroCore's gammaCore therapy to significantly reduce the number of
weekly cluster headaches in these chronic patients suggests it offers an
important new option for this extremely painful and difficult to manage
condition."
www.electrocoremedical.com
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