Promising therapy for patients with spinal cord injuries advances to the next stage

ONWARD is focused on developing and commercialising innovative therapies to facilitate functional recovery of people with spinal cord injury. Driven by a mission to restore movement, independence, and health in people with spinal cord injury, ONWARD  developed the ARC Therapy, delivered by implantable (ARCIM) or external (ARCEX) systems. An arc occurs when an electrical impulse bridges the gap between two conductors. ARC Therapy helps re-establish severed connections between spared neural networks and the brain through specific, targeted spinal cord stimulation, ultimately improving patients’ quality of life.

Moving forward, the company has enrolled the first patient in a pivotal trial, known as Up-LIFT, evaluating the Company’s ARC Therapy. Up-LIFT is the first large-scale pivotal trial of non-invasive spinal cord stimulation technology. The first patient was enrolled at the Shepherd Center in Atlanta, GA, USA. ONWARD plans to enrol 65 subjects at up to 15 sites in the United States, Canada, UK, and Europe.

“The start of this trial marks a significant milestone in bringing non-invasive stimulation to people living with spinal cord injury, whose top priority is restoring hand and arm function,” said Chet Moritz, co-PI of the Up-LIFT trial and Associate Professor in the Departments of Electrical & Computer Engineering and Rehabilitation Medicine at the University of Washington in Seattle.

A previous study recently demonstrated ONWARD’s transcutaneous spinal cord stimulation leads to both rapid and sustained recovery of hand and arm function for people with both motor-complete and incomplete cervical SCI. These findings further support the potential for non-invasive spinal cord stimulation technology in restoring hand and arm function in this population.

ONWARD is based at the High Tech Campus in Eindhoven, the Netherlands and the EPFL Innovation Park in Lausanne, with a growing U.S. presence in Boston, Massachusetts, USA. The company employes about 36 employees.

(Press release/RAN)