Devices & Diagnostics, Pharma, Startups

Tal Medical raises $14M Series B for device that repurposes MRI tech to treat – not diagnose – depression and bipolar disorder

Imagine you break your leg. You pop an oxycodone, and the pain will quickly subside. […]

Imagine you break your leg. You pop an oxycodone, and the pain will quickly subside. Physical pain can usually be treated quickly – but the same does not hold true for mental health. For instance, it takes four to 10 weeks for your standard SSRI to kick in and start treating depression.

That just isn’t fast enough for patients with severe forms of the disease – which is why Boston startup Tal Medical is developing a neuromodulation device, based on MRI technology, that – within a half hour, potentially- could improve the symptoms of depression and bipolar disease.

It just raised a $14 million Series B, with aims to introduce the first mainstream device, outside of electroconvulsive therapy, to rapidly treat those suffering from depression. Interestingly, many of the device company’s backers are former big pharma execs.

The round is led by PureTech Ventures, as well as several individual investors. There’s a fivefold plan to use the new funding, CEO Jan Skvarka said: Tal Medical will kick off a dose optimization study for the device, study the technology’s efficacy in bipolar disorder, scale up the team, scale the product itself for market launch and conduct deeper research to better understand its mechanism of action.

If all goes to plan, Skvarka projects the device may make it to market by 2018.

The genesis of Tal Medical’s device is a fluke. Fifteen years ago, researchers at Harvard University’s McLean Hospital started observing that patients in an MRI study on bipolar disorder drugs were reporting euphoria immediately after getting scanned. While the reasoning behind this puzzled researchers, the findings were fairly consistent – which is why Tal Medical is now repurposing that MRI technology to direct it toward a fast-acting device that treats mood disorders.

The small, tabletop device’s method, called Low Field Magnetic Stimulation, or LFMS, is derived from a very specific type of MRI tech called echo-planar magnetic resonance spectroscopic imaging technology. It’s currently studying how long the device has a positive impact on patients, and will kick off the dose optimization trial to gauge how long the device should be used.

Skvarka pointed out that in almost every clinical area, there are four ways to treat a patient – naturally, or through surgery, drugs and devices. Cardiology, when ranked as such: Natural methods include diet and exercise, surgery involves bypasses and the like, drugs include statins, and devices include pacemakers.

“In neuroscience and neuromodulation, we are where cardiology was several years ago,” Skvarka said.

There’s no good surgical option. “We’re not doing lobotomies anymore,” Skvarka said. While there are plenty of drugs out there, and natural methods like psychotherapy are certainly effective, the biggest device player is electroconvulsive therapy – which, while effective, is somewhat outmoded and has a serious side effect profile.

“When I put my strategy hat on, I saw this as an opportunity for a major advancement in depression,” Skvarka said. “It’s not just some new SSRI class that would improve slightly on the safety profile: If this works, there’s an opportunity for this rapid-onset treatment to change the clinical paradigm of psychiatry.”

Svarka said that one thing that attracted him to the helm of Tal Medical was that three former big pharma R&D executives were personally involved in the company. Steven Paul, a former top Eli Lilly guy, John LaMattina, a former Pfizer top guy and Ben Shapiro, a former top Merck guy are all backers. Tal Medical’s new chief medical officer, Atul Pande, was a senior R&D executive at GlaxoSmithKline.

“These guys, they understand the limitation of chemistry in the brain,” Skvarka said.

Photo: Flickr user GollyGforce

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