Inside This Issue: Sleep Disorders
Top News Alerts: Product Updates, Deals & Financings
Featured Topic: Highlights from JP Morgan - Cash is King
Featured Company: NeuroVigil
Subscribe now to access over 30 articles covering developments in drugs, devices and diagnostics for the brain and nervous system.
Market Highlights: Troubled Microcaps Look to Monetize Assets for Shareholders
Two innovative neurodevice companies have been forced to call it quits. Cyberkinetics Neurotechnology (CYKN.OB), which has been awaiting FDA action on Andara under a humanitarian device exemption for spinal cord injury, could not raise financing in the current environment. They sold Andara this month for pennies to Neurometrix (NURO) which already had an interest in the technology for peripheral nerve repair (see story, page 13). With a net cash value 30% higher than its stock valuation and under pressure from RA Capital, Northstar Neuroscience (NSTR), also announced a plan to liquidate and distribute assets to its shareholders. Neuropharmaceutical companies Neurobiological Technologies (NTII) and Avigen (AVGN) look to be well on the way to making the most for shareholders in tough times as well (see stories, page 5 and 13)...
Waking Up to a Better Nights Sleep
Sleep disorders affect some 238 million people worldwide. In the US alone, almost 60 million complain of insomnia. According to the medical dictionary insomnia is defined as difficulty falling asleep (initiation) or staying asleep (maintenance). It turns out these are two rather different conditions that require a specific approach for successful treatment. In everyday clinical practice however, this distinction is often ignored and complaints about sleep are treated in much the same way, often using the same drugs. The sleep disorder category also includes other abnormal sleep patterns, such those caused by night shifts, jet lag, restless legs syndrome, sleep apnea and rhythm reversals, all of which result in insufficient sleep. Also included under sleep disorders are narcolepsy and excessive daytime sleepiness. This article outlines sleep diagnostic and monitoring technology ans well as promising treatments in development ...
NeuroVigil: Simplifying the Science of Sleep
NeuroVigil, a San Diego startup, was founded by Dr. Philip Low who is Chairman and CEO of the company. Low just finished his PhD at the Salk Institute in 2007 when he incorporated Neurovigil. At Salk, he studied bird song development and while doing so he created the technology that forms the basis for NeuroVigil. His technique to record and analyze brain waves was first used to prove that birds have sleep states much like mammals. He says, "It undermined a dogma in neuroscience, that the neocortex is responsible for sleep states. Birds do not have a neocortex." While Dr. Low was waiting for DARPA funding to continue his research, one of his advisors suggested he try his technique in humans. And so it was that he took his one channel EEG recorder and SPEARS analysis software to the sleep laboratory...
Companies Covered In This Issue Include: Avigen, Geron, StemCells Inc. Pfizer, NeuroMetrix, Northstar Neuroscience, Neurobiological Technologies, UCB, Wyeth, Elan, Nihon Kohden, Neurotronics, RhinoCyte, Eli Lilly, Clinical Data, Merck Serono, Ovation Pharma, Xenoport, GlaxoSmithKline, Orexigen, Vivus, EnVivo Pharmaceuticals, AcelRx, Jazz Pharmaceuticals, NeurogesX, Schering-Plough, Organon, Cypress Bioscience, Forest, Pierre Fabre, EnteroMedics, Neurologix, Alexza, St. Jude Medical, Cortex Pharmaceuticals, Abbott, Mylan, BioMS, Supernus, King Pharma, NeuroNova, Ekos, Synosia, Satori, Concentric Medical, InSet Technologies, Avacta, Curidium, TheraGenics, Alpine Biomed, Mithridion, Axon Labs, Zeo Inc. 7TM Pharma, Hydra Biosciences, Ardian Inc. CVRx, BaroFold, BeneChill, AC Immune, Avigen, Alexza, NeuroVigil, Advanced Brain Monitoring, Cleveland Medical Devices, SleepMed, Compumedics, Natus, Somaxon, Neurim, Vanda, Takeda, Neurocrine, Neurogen, Transcept, Apnex, Acadia, Evotec, Arena, Merck, Sanofi-Aventis, Novadel.
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