BPH Energy investee secures European patent and bolsters advisory panel

Cortical Dynamics, an investee of diversified investment company BPH Energy (ASX: BPH), has reached a significant operational milestone with the issuance of a European patent for its neurodiagnostic monitoring and display system in Belgium, France, Germany and the UK.

As a result, Cortical Dynamics will be able to protect its intellectual property in the UK and the EU despite the UK’s recent exit from the EU.

Cortical is a medical device technology company commercialising what it describes as a “next generation brain function monitor” first developed by Professor David Liley at Swinburne University’s brain sciences institute in the early 2000s.

According to Cortical, its flagship product is a “next generation” electronic device that improves on existing electroencephalogram (EEG) technologies to measure the effects of anaesthesia on brain activity with the ultimate goal of keeping patients optimally anaesthetised at all times.

The company claims its approach is “fundamentally different” from other devices currently available because its underlying algorithm produces EEG indexes directly related to the physiological state of a patient’s brain.

Records obtained from European patent search portal Espacenet and the European Patent register indicate Cortical’s patent was first filed in 2007 and granted in October 2020.

Patent upscaling

In a statement to the market, Cortical said it had developed an extensive patent portfolio encapsulating the BARM, providing critical patent protection across a number of key brain monitoring markets.

The company’s competitive advantage is underpinned by a strong patent position covered by six patent families and 26 granted patents to date, spread across multiple jurisdictions including Australia, New Zealand, Japan, China, Europe and the US. Notably, its patents cover both the composite cortical state (CCS) and cortical input variants.

To ensure its path to commerciality, Cortical’s management has wooed IntuitiveX, a US-based life science accelerator and incubator, as well as Korean investment firm Gentium Partners as shareholders.

Late last year, the medical devices developer secured approval from regulators to sell its BARM device in the South Korean market. With its patent arsenal growing, the approach in Europe will focus on total intravenous anaesthesia (TIVA), the company said.

According to researchers, TIVA offers an alternative method of inducing and maintaining general anaesthesia without turning to potentially harmful inhalation agents.

UK healthcare regulator, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) has gone on public record to recommend the use of EEG-based depth of anaesthesia monitors as options in patients receiving TIVA and in patients who are considered at higher risk of adverse outcomes – strong early signs that anaesthesia is moving towards more non-invasive and safer methods.

Research suggests that from the 29 million major medical procedures each year offered by European surgeries, around 55% are balanced anaesthesia (using a combination of intravenous agents such as propofol and volatile gases) while 20% are TIVA using propofol.

Bolstering advisory panel

In other news, Cortical has also bolstered its advisory panel by appointing Jamie Stanistreet to the Cortical Dynamics Advisory Committee.

An accountant by trade, Mr Stanistreet wields over 40 years’ experience in the medical device industry with his experience, connections and knowledge considered to be “invaluable to the commercial development of Cortical Dynamics”, the company said.

Over the past 20 years, Mr Stanistreet served as the managing director and vice president of Medtronic, the world’s largest medical device company that currently generates more than US$30 billion in annual revenues.

According to BPH, Mr Stanistreet presided over a 10-fold revenue growth rate at the company and was instrumental for its market-leading position.