Spinal cord injury is a clear-and-present unmet need in health care. Fifteen thousand people per year in the US suffer acute injury to the spinal cord, causing loss of motor and sensory function. While a small proportion of patients make some recovery with rehab, most don't, and there is no treatment to reverse the damage.
Cambridge, Mass.-based InVivo Therapeutics Holdings Corp. wants to serve as the foundation for a new paradigm in treating SCI with its Neuro-Spinal Scaffold device, a porous biopolymer that is inserted inside a cavity of an injured spinal cord to serve as a sort-of cylindrical bandage, allowing neuro-generation processes to take place within the cord