tiny railroad spike that’s hollow in the middle. As its name suggests, the device is meant to create a path deep inside the brain that enables surgeons to reach a clot, say, or a tumor without cutting through the brain’s white matter, the bundles of nerve fibers that help the body perform a variety of critical functions.
The procedure is done through a small surgical opening, about the size of a dime, made in the lining of the brain (what’s known as the dura). The device uses computerized imaging techniques to help surgeons see the pathway. Surgeons use other tools to clear up the clot, like a tissue removal device Nico sells called the Myriad.
Healthcare providers have to buy about $160,000, on average, worth of equipment to start using Brain Path, and then spend generally between $3,500 and $4,000 per case, according to Pearson. That’s expensive, but Pearson points out two other parts of the equation: A patient’s ICU stay could be significantly shortened, lowering expenses, and a hospital could generate revenue from a surgery it wouldn’t have otherwise done. Not to mention, of course, that the patient could wind up in better shape than he or she would have been in otherwise.
“We feel positive about the results [so far], and in a non-scientific setting it looks very promising, but we’ve gotta prove that further,” Pearson says.
Nico has said that about 3,000 brain surgeries have been performed with Brain Path since it was introduced in 2012, and about 35 hospitals and healthcare institutions are trained to use it. Part of the challenge has been Nico won’t sell the device to any surgeons who aren’t trained on it, something Hanthorn says with a laugh some neurosurgeons called “the worst business model they’ve ever seen.”
“We made it difficult for ourselves, but at the same time, we were absolutely committed to ensure that we had the right outcomes for the patient,” he says.
Will it all pay off? The answer will begin to play out over the next few years as Nico runs its trial. Perhaps if all goes well, Suros’s investors will have a chance to hit it big with the same group again, this time through a sale of Nico. Pearson acknowledges it’s been tougher this time around.
“What we did at Suros was mountain climbing, it was [Mount] Kilimanjaro,” Pearson says. “This is Everest.”
