EBAMed starts pre-clinical testing at Mayo Clinic

The pre-clinical testing of EBAMed‘s ultrasound-based device to monitor heart motion and command the therapy machine started in the last quarter of 2019 and is being run in collaboration with clinical centers in Europe and the USA. Testing on animals involves hands-free ultrasound cardiac imaging, real-time image streaming and processing using machine-learning, as well as the generation of timing signals for the therapy machine using predictive models. This testing phase represents the core of EBAMed’s activities in the first half of 2020 and enables the company to reach the milestones set in the seed financing round of August 2019.

EBAMed’s product will enable proton therapy centers to deliver the most precise and accurate method to treat heart arrythmias. There are 89 proton therapy centers in the world, the vast majority of which are in Europe and North America. The opening of its first office in the USA will enable the company to establish a stronger presence in the American ecosystem.

Heart arrythmias

Heart arrhythmias are disruptions in the normal heartbeat, which affect around 15 million people in Europe and North America and are expected to at least double in the next 50 years. Surgical interventions, called ablations, are often used to treat arrhythmias and consist in burning heart tissues to stop the local conduction of the disrupted electrical signals. There are up to 600,000 ablation procedures per year, corresponding to an aggregate CHF 10+ billion market with an 8% CAGR. Apart from the patient discomfort due to the surgical procedure (under anesthesia) and the high cost due to the length (2-7 hours) and manpower required (up to 10 medical staff), the treatment effectiveness varies largely between 20%-80%. Surveys of medical doctors indicate that the limitations are linked to the quality of the ablation lesion created by invasive ablation.

EBAMed SA is a Swiss startup based at Campus Biotech Innovation Park in Geneva whose mission is to enable safe and effective non-invasive treatments of heart arrhythmias with protontherapy. EBAMed is a recipient of Horizon 2020 funds and is among the five most promising young startups in Switzerland, according to the last TOP100 ranking by Venturelab after winning competitions from IMD, MassChallenge and Venture.ch. The company is currently developing a medical device to enable non- invasive heart motion imaging and real-time synchronization of the therapeutic beam. 

(Press release)