According to a report today in the Boston Globe, Foxborough, MA-based Cyberkinetics Neurotechnology Systems (OTC:[[ticker:CYKN]]) is shutting down. In January, it sold the rights to its Andara Oscillating Field Stimulator technology, a device designed to regenerate nerve cells in patients with severe spinal injuries, to Waltham, MA-based NeuroMetrix for $350,000.
The FDA hasn’t yet approved the Andara system, and Cyberkinetics ran out of money while waiting, according to the Globe, which spoke with CEO Tim Surgenor. The status of another Cyberkinetics product—a brain implant called BrainGate that was designed to help paralyzed people control computers and, eventually, their muscles—is unclear. The company reported in an SEC filing last August company that it was ending its involvement in the clinical trial of BrainGate in order to focus on Andara, and was transitioning the trial to a third party.
Cyberkinetics isn’t the only company to shut down recently that was working on technologies that could help spinal-injury patients—Maynard, MA-based Innovative Spinal Technologies collapsed in January.
Author: Wade Roush
Between 2007 and 2014, I was a staff editor for Xconomy in Boston and San Francisco.
Since 2008 I've been writing a weekly opinion/review column called VOX: The Voice of Xperience. (From 2008 to 2013 the column was known as World Wide Wade.)
I've been writing about science and technology professionally since 1994. Before joining Xconomy in 2007, I was a staff member at MIT’s Technology Review from 2001 to 2006, serving as senior editor, San Francisco bureau chief, and executive editor of TechnologyReview.com. Before that, I was the Boston bureau reporter for Science, managing editor of supercomputing publications at NASA Ames Research Center, and Web editor at e-book pioneer NuvoMedia.
I have a B.A. in the history of science from Harvard College and a PhD in the history and social study of science and technology from MIT. I've published articles in Science, Technology Review, IEEE Spectrum, Encyclopaedia Brittanica, Technology and Culture, Alaska Airlines Magazine, and World Business, and I've been a guest of NPR, CNN, CNBC, NECN, WGBH and the PBS NewsHour. I'm a frequent conference participant and enjoy opportunities to moderate panel discussions and on-stage chats.
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