Cyberkinetics Loses Energy

Wade Roush3/19/09Follow @wroush

According to a report today in the Boston Globe, Foxborough, MA-based Cyberkinetics Neurotechnology Systems (OTC:CYKN)  is shutting down. In January, it sold the rights to its Andara Oscillating Field Stimulator technology, a device designed to regenerate nerve cells in patients with severe spinal injuries, to Waltham, MA-based NeuroMetrix for $350,000.

The FDA hasn’t yet approved the Andara system, and Cyberkinetics ran out of money while waiting, according to the Globe, which spoke with CEO Tim Surgenor. The status of another Cyberkinetics product—a brain implant called BrainGate that was designed to help paralyzed people control computers and, eventually, their muscles—is unclear. The company reported in an SEC filing last August company that it was ending its involvement in the clinical trial of BrainGate in order to focus on Andara, and was transitioning the trial to a third party.

Cyberkinetics isn’t the only company to shut down recently that was working on technologies that could help spinal-injury patients—Maynard, MA-based Innovative Spinal Technologies collapsed in January.

Wade Roush is Xconomy's chief correspondent and editor of Xconomy San Francisco. You can subscribe to his Google Group or e-mail him at wroush@xconomy.com. Follow @wroush