The Israeli BioTech company tackling SCI injury treatment recently began trading on the TSXV
Approximately 17,700 new spinal cord injuries (SCI) take place each year just in the US alone, most of which are the result of vehicle, work and sporting accidents and falls. Calculating the impact of spinal cord injuries on people worldwide requires a broader sample, but the World Health Organization (WHO) states that SCI affects between 250,000 and 500,000 people every year.
The cost of traumatic spinal cord injuries exceed the combined medical and caregiving costs of patients with dementia, multiple sclerosis, and cerebral palsy. Moreover, it is reported that fewer than 1% of patients with SCI leave the hospital experiencing complete neurological recovery.
The treatments and rehabilitation processes of SCI, that are currently commercialized, require long-term, expensive care that involves a multidisciplinary approach and which, unfortunately, do not result in restoration of lost function. Research on cutting-edge biotechnology to create alternative, more effective SCI treatments are emerging and securing powerful positions in the $752.9 Billion global biotech market.
NurExone, an Israeli biotech company, came to exist with the hopes of providing a solution to these painful injures or providing an improved outcome for patients. The company is developing an off-the-shelf, minimally invasive, breakthrough treatment for the reversal or reduction of the harmful results of acute SCI. NurExone’s treatment uses a proprietary exosome-based technology that has been proven in animal studies to recover function in SCI and has enormous potential to treat people suffering from all categories of acute spinal cord injury. In the animal study, NurExone’s technology showed spinal cord nerve regeneration in a model of complete spinal cord transection. Thirty to forty percent of the study rats, with induced SCI, were able to walk again after receiving the exosome treatment.
On June 15, 2022, NurExone announced the completion of its listing on the TSX.V under the symbol NRX.V. This was accomplished through a mutually agreed reverse takeover with EnerSpar (now NurExone Biologic Inc.).
The company is led by a team of experienced professionals. Among them is Yoram Drucker who was appointed Chairman of the Board and Vice President Strategic Operations. Drucker, an Israeli entrepreneur, was previously involved in the development of two successful cell therapy technology firms, Brainstorm and Pluristem. Additionally, serving as CEO is Dr. Lior Shaltiel, an entrepreneur and award-winning scientist with extensive international experience, specializing in chemical engineering, molecular biology, electrophysiology, pharmacology, and drug delivery systems. Before joining NurExone, he served as Vice President and Partner at a boutique Chinese investment bank operating in Israel. Dr. Shaltiel released the following statement regarding the company’s public offering:
“By becoming a publicly-traded company, we gain access to the capital markets and investors can benefit from new opportunities with an innovative Israeli start-up biopharmaceutical company. I am thrilled with the opportunity to fulfill our vision to be a leading company in the development of a novel, biological and minimally invasive treatment for Spinal Cord Injury and Traumatic Brain Injury and one of the first to become a listed public company.”
There remains a major unmet need for developing new approaches to treating spinal cord injuries (SCI), traumatic brain injuries (TBI), and damage to the central nervous system (CNS). NurExone is developing a treatment that could potentially provide safe, efficient and convenient care via the company’s revolutionary biological extracellular vesicles (exosome)-based technology drug platform to deliver proprietary therapeutics.
The cost of spinal cord injuries to patients, insurance companies, and governing agencies and the limited ability of current therapies to recover lost function create an ongoing need for treatments that deliver better results for the patient and are more cost-effective. The recent RTO announced by NurExone creates an opportunity for investors interested in getting in early on a company in a field that could deliver major growth, while having a positive impact.
