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The company is developing a novel, non-invasive, bio-guided treatment to restore function of patients with acute spinal cord injuries.
Breakthrough therapy for spinal cord injuries (SCI)
Over two hundred and fifty thousand people suffer from spinal cord injuries in the US every year, with patients typically experiencing major, and mostly irreversible, loss of function that requires millions of dollars in lifetime care per patient.
NurExone is developing a revolutionary bio-guided treatment. The technology is based on exosomes, small particles that are created when stem cells proliferate, to deliver therapeutic agents to a specific location in the body. Nurexone’s proprietary agents, delivered by the exosomes, create an environment may support Nerves regeneration. For spine injuries, the bio-guided treatment is an agent that inhibits the PTEN protein in nerve cells, allowing nerves regeneration to occur.
The company carried out preclinical, animal studies that demonstrated that bio-guided treatment led to significant improvement, sensory recovery, and faster reflex restoration. The study reveals that Nurexone’s proprietary technology caused new connections in the spinal cord, repairing the damage from injuries, at least in part.
Studies also suggested that Nurexone’s technology may be useful for other indications including strokes and traumatic brain injuries (TBI).
The company was founded in 2020, based on research by Professor Shulamit Levenberg, Head of the Biomedical Engineering Department at Technion, and by Professor Daniel Offen, Head of the Lab for Neurosciences at the Felsenstein Medical Research Center in Tel Aviv University.
Market opportunity
Spine related injuries are expected to increase in the future owing to motor accidents, workplace injuries, stroke, and cancer related motor disabilities. Currently, between 250,000 and 500,000 people become spinal cord injured every year worldwide, and the lifetime costs of treatments range from $1.6 million to nearly $5 million for 25-year-olds, to $1.1 million to nearly $2.7 million for 50-year-olds. The total addressable market for spinal cord trauma injuries is expected to reach $3.04 billion by 2025, with a CAGR of 3.7%.
Stepping back to look solely at exosome technology (not necessarily related to SCI), since 2018, exosomes are an emerging therapeutic field, with hundreds of millions of US dollars invested in exosome technologies by companies including Eli Lilly, Roche, and Takeda.
NurExone has obtained exclusive rights to an advanced exosome manufacturing process developed at the Technion, Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa. NurExone will be responsible for additional exosome research, management of clinical studies and commercialization of the technology for different indications not limited to Central Nerve System (CNS).
NurExone’s listing
NurExone’s listing on the TSX.V under the symbol NRX was accomplished through an agreed reverse takeover (RTO) of EnerSpar signed on January 3, 2022. EnerSpar will acquire each ordinary share of NurExone in exchange for 17 post-consolidation EnerSpar shares, resulting in a total of 48,383,963 total shares outstanding following completion of the transaction.
Despite limited financial analyses available on the stock, it seems like a potentially unique opportunity given the fact that the market for spinal-cord treatment continues to grow, thus enabling new players in the field to partake in this ever-growing industry. Moreover, any company that delivers therapy that has the potential to unlock the secret of restoring function to patients who have experienced traumatic spinal injury, seems to be worth considering