Company name: CNS Response.
Industry: health IT/ behavioral health.
Location: Aliso Viejo, California.
Solution/product: PEER Online is a cloud-based platform that allows physicians to exchange outcome data referenced to their patients’ neurophysiology. The goal is to help physicians compare brain patterns and learn which treatments have been effective for particular patients and which have not. When the product was launched last year, CNS Response CEO George Carpenter compared the exchange of information it sought with forums created by pediatric cancer doctors in the 1970s that ascertained which patients fared better with certain treatments. According to a Businessweek article, the tough thing about treating patients for depression is that it can take time to find the best medication for a particular patient. Personalized medicine tests developed by CNS and firms like it identify physical and mental patterns in order to predict the best treatment for individual patients.
Money raised: $300,000 of $2 million, according to a Form D filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
Investors: four.
Management team: Carpenter previously ran WorkWell Systems Inc., an international physical medicine firm. He also led CORE, a provider of employee absence management and disability reinsurance management before it was acquired by specialty insurance company Assurant. Daniel Hoffman, chief medical officer, is a neuropsychiatrist with more than 35 years of experience treating general psychiatric conditions such as depression, bipolar disorder and anxiety. Brian MacDonald, chief technology officer, is the co-founder of Mill City Venture Development, which consulted for the predecessor company to CNS Response.
A Deep-dive Into Specialty Pharma
A specialty drug is a class of prescription medications used to treat complex, chronic or rare medical conditions. Although this classification was originally intended to define the treatment of rare, also termed “orphan” diseases, affecting fewer than 200,000 people in the US, more recently, specialty drugs have emerged as the cornerstone of treatment for chronic and complex diseases such as cancer, autoimmune conditions, diabetes, hepatitis C, and HIV/AIDS.
Market: Companies like CNS Response and potential competitors such as AssureRx Health and Brain Resource see significant opportunity in the personalized testing market The company estimates that the psychiatric treatment market accounts for 7.4 percent of healthcare spending, second only to heart disease. In the U.S., depression affects more than 18 million people and results in 11 million prescriptions per month for treatment.
