Onward’s first implant made waves back in 2021, with positive results published in Nature. Image credit: Shutterstock / Collagery.

The implant is part of a feasibility study investigating the ARC-BCI system in spinal cord injury patients who are paralysed from the waist down.

The Wimagine BCI is being provided by Clinatec, a biomedical research centre located on the CEA campus in Grenoble, France. Onward’s component is the ARC-IM, an implantable spinal cord stimulation system.

Go deeper with GlobalData

Data Insights

The gold standard of business intelligence.

Find out more

The two devices work in tandem whereby the BCI detects brain signals and translates them into commands, which are then picked up by the ARC-IM and delivered as targeted and programmed neurostimulation.

Dr Jocelyne Bloch, who performed the implant, said the procedure “went smoothly, and early signs are encouraging.”

The trial is been supported by a grant from the European Innovation Council and coordinated by Swiss neuroscience research institute NeuroRestore. The company said the most recent procedure was conducted at the Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Vaudois (CHUV) in Lausanne, Switzerland.

See Also:

    The implant marks the third overall with Clinatec’s BCI in Onward’s programmes – with another coming in a parallel feasibility study for upper limb movement.

    How well do you really know your competitors?

    Access the most comprehensive Company Profiles on the market, powered by GlobalData. Save hours of research. Gain competitive edge.

    Company Profile – free sample

    Thank you!

    Your download email will arrive shortly

    Not ready to buy yet? Download a free sample

    We are confident about the unique quality of our Company Profiles. However, we want you to make the most beneficial decision for your business, so we offer a free sample that you can download by submitting the below form

    By GlobalData
    Visit our Privacy Policy for more information about our services, how we may use, process and share your personal data, including information of your rights in respect of your personal data and how you can unsubscribe from future marketing communications. Our services are intended for corporate subscribers and you warrant that the email address submitted is your corporate email address.

    The first implant made waves back in 2021, with results published in Nature demonstrating how a patient moved his paralysed legs by thinking, aided by Onward’s system.

    Onward, which was accepted onto the US Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) new Total Product Lifecycle Advisory Program (TAP) earlier this year, has a range of devices currently in clinical development. Among these is the ARC-EX – a non-implantable counterpart of the ARC-IM – that met its primary and secondary endpoints in a trial called Up-LIFT in May this year.

    The results, published in Nature Medicine, showed the technology to improvements in upper limb strength, function, and sensation in patients with chronic tetraplegia due to cervical spinal cord injury. Unlike the feasibility study with the ARC-BCI, the Up-LIFT trial did not include a brain chip component.

    The news comes after Neuralink gained an FDA breakthrough device designation for its Blindsight BCI for restoring vision. The company’s other brain chip product, Telepathy, is currently in clinical trials for restoring movement in paralysed limbs. The Elon Musk-owned company has currently implanted two patients with Telepathy.