Bob Cathcart, AiM Medical Robotics - Portable MRI Compatible Surgical Robot | LSI Europe '22

Transcription

Bob Cathcart  0:08  

Thank you, Henry, you just did my presentation in about 30 seconds. And I appreciate it did a nice overview of what we're trying to do. Thank you all for being here. And thank you to LSI for having AiM Medical as part of this great meeting. And aim, we are trying, we're not trying, we are developing the world's first MRI compatible robot for use in both the operating room and the MRI suite. By combining advanced robotics, with the real time imaging capabilities of the MRI, we fit, we looking to revolutionize the way surgeons treat brain disorders. Our goal is to allow surgeons to hit their targets deep in the brain the first time every time. So that's the second time we've said that today. That's great. First time every time. So by a little bit of background on the company, we licensed this technology from the Worcester Polytechnic Institute outside of Boston, the technology actually had its research beginnings out of Johns Hopkins. We have raised about three and a half million dollars to date in a seed round. More importantly, the inventors, the CO inventors of the system out of Worcester have received over $15 million of NIH grants over the past 10 years, which have gone to the development of the technology. This has led to significant preclinical testing, including a 30 patient IRB study at the Brigham and Women's Hospital, and two NIH funded animal studies. So despite the fact that we are an early stage company, that technology is actually very advanced. We have been working with an excellent design partner Triple Rings Technologies, who's a sponsor here at this meeting. To help build our first working prototype that you saw in the video. We have issued patents, we have a target market of about 400,000 procedures worldwide. In the neurosurgery space, that's where we will go first. We also see this as a platform technology for other image guided procedures, like liver and kidney ablation and prostate biopsy. So let's talk about that clinical, economic, clinical and economic challenge that we are first trying to tackle. We know that stereotactic Neurosurgery is a is a space that's ripe for disruption. The study on the right hand side that comes out of University of California, San Francisco from Dr. Paul Larsen shows that up to 34% of the time, patients that go in for a procedure are coming back for a revision, meaning a second or third procedure. And most of the time, it's because they missed the targets deep in the brain. So really significant clinical problem there. Also, when you look at the MDR reporting with the with the FDA, you see that in precision Miss missing targets manual in and human interaction with devices continues to be a significant problem in this space. This current practice of manual interaction with targeting systems in the neurosurgery operating room continues to be a significant clinical and economic challenge. That's, that's adding significant cost to both patients and in hospitals. So our solution is to really develop the next generation of image guided product. If you look on the left hand side of this screen, you see what is really today still the standard of care in stereotactic neurosurgery. Those are a metal framing systems that are constructed in the back table the operating room for these procedures. They require manual assembly, they're time consuming, and they are really the source for most of the errors and complications that occur in these procedures. The first robots that came into the, into this space in 2011 were much like the early first generation robots that are in the market today. They're large, bulky, they take up a lot of room in the operating room, they don't move from room to room, they add time to the procedure, so they really have not met the need of improving outcomes or improving costs in this space. There have been disposable devices built for the MRI space one you see on the second from the left, but they have not been readily adopted because they can add up to $15,000 of single use disposable costs to these procedures. So as an economic product, it's just not viable in today's modern operating room. Our goal is to build the mimic or mimic the existing headframe systems with our automated robot to automate the positioning and targeting within the procedure to make it MRI compatible so they can use it in the MRI or the operating room. Make it highly accurate and and precise. We want to make it small and lightweight so that can be removed from one table packaged and move to another room. So from an economic MC standpoint, we think this would be highly adopted by by hospitals and hospital administrators that have to pay the bills. Were very conscious about how it works in the workflow so that we can make this seamless for our end user physicians. We think we have a great value proposition that that rewards patient everybody in this factum patients, providers and clinicians, talk a little bit about the proof of concept earlier in the presentation. Again, the CO inventors of the technology in the academic environment have received over $15 million dollars of NIH grants that lead to a first and man study for prostate biopsy with a prostate robot in the MRI at the Brigham and Women's, subsequently, NIH grants and provided for two different M animal studies with our neurosurgery, prototype, all of that has gone to great, great distance of telling us that we know we can make this work we can build this product is something that we're now taking from the academic academic environment to the commercial environment. A little bit about the market opportunity. We see this as a $2 billion total available market that consists of three different revenue streams, you have like sale of the capital equipment or the sale of the robot to the hospital, we will have disposables that are used on a per procedure basis. And we also will generate revenue through service contracts with hospitals. And this is a very standard revenue model for surgical robots that are on the market today. Our first target procedure markets in the US and around the world will will revolve around brain tumors, both the biopsy and ablation, the brain tumors, and also the placement of neural stimulators for DVR deep brain stimulation. These provide good current busy opportunity markets for us going forward. Additionally, as we think about our technology, as we prove it in the brain and the neurosurgery space, we see this as a potential platform technology. So you know, there are other indications like liver and kidney ablation and biopsy that are being done today under CT harmful ionizing rate as a radiation. We know we can use do these procedures in the MRI environment as well as prostate biopsy. So the idea is that the the working end of the unit can transfer over and we can we can build robots that can be used for these other anatomical approaches. We've gone to great lengths to prove ourselves in terms of our ability to enter the market we believe it'd be a 510 K class to product we've had opinions from from consultants in this field as well from as well from the Boston Scientific Corporation has taken a look at us. We know there are healthy DRGs in this space, we don't feel that we are going to cause a burden in terms of economics and the reimbursement to the to the hospital so we think we can smoothly be adopted into this space. A little bit about the team myself. I've been in the industry for over 30 years. Most relevant to this I was a commercial worldwide commercial leader for Hanson robotics. We had robotic systems sold all over the world in the cardiovascular space. Dr. Jonathan Sakir is here with me today. He's a renowned general surgeon. There's also spent about 30 years in the field of surgical robots as a real expert in supporting us right now. We have a great medical advisory board. Dr. Julie politis is the chair of that board. She's the CO inventor neurosurgical neurosurgeon on on the project. And she's pulled together a great clinical advisory team from array of experts from around the world. Just quickly on the development milestone, today, as we mentioned, we raised about three and a half million dollars and we've built our first working prototype. We are currently raising an A Round and $15 million so that we can prepare the prototype for animal work and vnv testing in in the 2020 23 timeframe. And again, essentially we'll be using that $15 million a round to build out to advance the prototype that we have today and build it out for FDA testing. And glad to answer any questions for anybody after the presentation and I appreciate your time and attention today. Thank you.