Sorin has acquired Neurotech, a spin-off of Universite catholique de Louvain (UCL), Belgium. Neurotech designs cost-effective active implantable medical devices used in the treatment of neurological, psychiatric and related disorders.
Established in the end of nineties, Neurotech was co-founded by M Troosters and three members of UCL (C Trullemans, Cl Veraart and J Delbeke). During the first years of the company, the spin-off of two laboratories (Neural Rehabilitation Engineering and Microelectronics Laboratory) assisted in the development of a visual prosthesis in the frame of European grants. A world premiere took place in 1998, with the implantation of an optic nerve visual prosthesis at the Cliniques universitaires St-Luc, Brussels.
In 2002, the company identified a new application for the treatment of refractory epilepsy. A novel implantable vagus nerve stimulation system called ADNS-300. The CE marked system is able to stimulate and record compound action potentials from the vagus nerve, using this information to potentially personalise the therapy and provide an improved outcome. Chronic recording of the compound action potentials of the vagus nerve has been another world premiere for Neurotech, which it achieved in collaboration with the University of Gent’s department of Epileptology of P Boon.
Other prototypes were also developed by Neurotech to evaluate the use of neurostimulation to treat either refractory obstructive sleep apnea, or movement disorders respectively.
“I am very pleased that the unique technological building blocks we have developed for our products can now be used for the treatment of debilitating diseases otherwise refractory to other treatments, within Sorin Group,” said Michel Troosters, founder and past CEO, Neurotech.
“This acquisition represents a further important step forward in our long-term growth initiatives as announced in our recent strategic plan,” said Andre-Michel Ballester, CEO, Sorin Group.
Bruno Delvaux, principal of UCL, said: “Building bridges between science and industry for the benefits of society is one of the key missions of UCL. Our research, through an integrated technology transfer process, contributes directly to address unmet therapeutic needs.”
