After Musk announced the "successful operation" of the brain-computer interface, its number one competitor Synchron also took action. On Thursday (February 1) local time, Synchron announced that it had acquired a minority stake in Acquandas, a German thin film component technology company, and Synchron will obtain the exclusive right to use the latter’s layering technology for medical devices. In addition, two senior executives from Synchron will also join Acquandas' board of directors.
It is understood that Synchron was founded in 2012. The company developed a brain-computer interface (BCI) called "SynchronSwitch". The interface is implanted into blood vessels on the surface of the brain's motor cortex with the help of minimally invasive surgery, and is connected to the brain through the jugular vein, allowing users with limited physical mobility to operate smart home devices with their thoughts.
As early as August 2020, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted it a "breakthrough device" designation. In 2022, the company's $75 million Series C financing was oversubscribed, with investors including Bill Gates and funds owned by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos.
Synchron predicted at the time that once the FDA's key experiment was successful, its device was expected to receive commercial approval and be officially launched as soon as 2024. The acquisition of Acquandas equity may indicate that the product's launch time is approaching, and the company is preparing for commercial needs.
Acquandas has unique technology that can layer the metal in the interface implant. Synchron CEO Tom Oxley said that while the two companies have worked together for many years, the new collaboration will help the company continue to innovate around implantable neural technology and scale to meet "very large potential needs."
"We think there are millions of people with paralysis who need this technology, and we're getting ready to mass-produce it," Oxley said. As the device ramps up, Synchron also hopes to gauge interest from potential patients, and the company plans to launch patient registration in mid-February to get more details on demand.
"We hope to create a mechanism for people to express interest, which will help us determine our considerations for which clinical sites across the United States we focus on first," Oxley said.
Synchron has always been compared with Musk's Neuralink, during which the former was once considered to have led the BCI track. But earlier this week, Musk seemed to have the upper hand when he announced that Neuralink had completed the first human brain device implantation surgery.
Compared with the two, Neuralink's system requires a craniotomy to be implanted into the patient's brain tissue, while Synchron's motor stent device "Stentrode" only requires minimally invasive surgery, and the risks are naturally lower.
It is reported that Musk complained at an internal meeting in July last year that Stentrode was already far ahead of Neuralink’s technology.