Breakthrough Depression Treatment approved by European Commission

HERZLIYA, Israel -- European Commission has backed breakthrough technology BNA-PREDICT by elminda Ltd, a leading brain technology company for European patients suffering from depression.

New technology BNA-PREDICT, has been developed to predict responsiveness to both antidepressants and neurostimulation treatments and help physicians select the most effective anti-depressant treatment and monitor treatment effect directly in the brain for patients suffering from depression. The use of BNA-PREDICT increases treatment effectiveness reduces healthcare costs as well as reduces mortality from the disease.

Over 50 million Europeans are suffering from depression, a devastating disease with the significant social and financial impact on the European community. Depression is the number one cause of disability and accounts for more than 30% of the total cost associated with brain-related diseases. Depression is one of the only diseases with increased mortality rates.

Selecting the right treatment for depressive patients presents an enormous challenge for doctors and success rate is less than 50%. elminda's brain analytics product, the BNA-PREDICT, was developed to predict responsiveness to both antidepressants and neurostimulation treatments and help physicians select the most effective anti-depressant treatment and monitor treatment effect directly in the brain for patients suffering from depression. The use of BNA-PREDICT increases treatment effectiveness reduces healthcare costs as well as reduces mortality from the disease.

The two-year award was granted to elminda through the prestigious Horizon 2020's phase 2 Small and Medium-sized Enterprise (SME) instrument, which targets groundbreaking innovations that have the potential to profoundly impact the EU economy and global healthcare. Phase 2 requests had a success rate of 3.6%.

The award will be used to solidify further development of elminda's BNA-PREDICT technology and product, as well as to deploy a multi-center clinical study focused on optimization of anti-depressant treatment decisions for patients suffering from depression. The clinical study will be conducted in collaboration with leading research and clinical centers in Israel, Germany, Switzerland and Italy.

"We are excited by the continued vote of confidence of the European Commission," said Ronen Gadot, CEO of elminda. "This award will allow us to strengthen our collaboration with clinical key opinion leaders and industry partners, with the goal of further solidifying the clinical utility and cost-effectiveness of BNA-PREDICT in improving the practice in the treatment of mental disorders".