ElectroCore said it tapped investment bank Piper Jaffray to help it court potential partners to commercialize the non-invasive vagus nerve stimulation treatment for headaches it’s developing.
The self-administered nVNS procedure is designed to treat migraine and cluster headaches, according to a press release; U.S. approval is expected in 2015, the company said. ElectroCore said it’s also working on trials for respiratory and gastric motility disorders, depression and anxiety.
Last year, Basking Ridge, N.J.-based ElectroCore inked a $14 million co-development deal with WaveCore for the nVNS technology.
"The interest from pharma, medical devices and even technology companies has grown considerably over the last six months" founder & CEO J.P. Errico said in prepared remarks. "We wanted to explore all the opportunities for our future, from partnership to remaining independent. We therefore had discussions with several banks to help us with this process and chose Piper Jaffray. We are under no pressure to do a deal as we are fully funded until 2016. However, as we move from proving that nVNS is a promising treatment for primary headache, to rolling out a sales organization we wanted to be mindful of all our options."
ElectroCore said it raised some $50 million from backers including Merck‘s (NYSE:MRK) Global Health Innovation Fund, Easton Capital and Core Ventures for the nVNS device, which has CE Mark approval in the European Union for indications including primary headache, bronchoconstriction, epilepsy, gastric motility disorders, depression and anxiety. South Africa, India, New Zealand, Australia, Colombia, Brazil and Malaysia approved the device for cluster headache, migraine and medication overuse headache; Canada approved it for cluster headache, according to the release.
