Cortical Dynamics Ltd Stock Market Press Releases and Company Profile
30 June 2020 Annual Financial Report
30 June 2020 Annual Financial Report

Perth, Oct 27, 2020 AEST (ABN Newswire) - Cortical is an Australian based medical device technology company that has developed an industry disruptive brain function monitor independently described as "a paradigm busting technology from an Australian based device house that really gives a significant advantage in this space". Its competitive advantage has been recognised by leading world experts in anesthesia. Cortical has received both TGA approval and the CE mark and has now commenced its sales campaign.

The core product, the Brain Anaesthesia Response Monitor (BARM), was developed to better detect the effect of anaesthetic agents on brain activity, aiding anaesthetists in keeping patients optimally anaesthetised. The product is focused on integrated distribution with the leading global brands in operation theatre monitoring equipment.

The approach used is fundamentally different from all other devices currently available in the market in that its underlying algorithm produces EEG indexes which are directly related to the physiological state of the patient's brain. Such monitoring is gaining significant use during surgery, however even with the use of EEG monitors, it is not uncommon for there to be a critical imbalance between the patient's anaesthetic requirements and the anaesthetic drugs administered. While a number of EEG monitors are commercially available, one that is reliably able to quantify the patient's anaesthetic state is still desperately needed.

To date, all of the existing EEG based depth of anaesthesia ("D o A") monitors operate in the context of a number of well documented limitations: (i) inability to monitor the analgesic effects; and (ii) reliably measure certain hypnotic agents.

The above limitations highlight the inadequacies in current EEG based depth of anaesthesia monitors, particularly given surgical anaesthesia requires both hypnotic and analgesic agents (and muscle relaxants). The global brain monitoring market is poised to grow to reach $1.6 billion by 2020. Around 312 million major surgical procedures requiring anaesthesia are undertaken every year worldwide (WHO 2012.) The pain monitoring market is valued at over $8.6 billion. per annum by 2022. (www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/pain-management-devices-market- April 2016).

Initial marketing will focus on Total Intravenous Anaesthesia (TIVA), a method of inducing and maintaining general anaesthesia without the use of any inhalation agent. This is becoming more widely accepted, particularly in Europe. Approximately 29 million major general surgery general anaesthesias are conducted in the European Union each year, of which 55% (circa 16 million) are balanced anaesthesia (using a combination of intravenous agents such as propofol and volatile gases) and 20% are total intravenous anaesthesia using propofol. This creates a market opportunity of between $83m to $229m to Cortical in the European Union alone.

"The use of EEG-based depth of anaesthesia monitors has been recommended in patients receiving total intravenous anaesthesia because it is cost effective and because it is not possible to measure end-tidal anaesthetic concentration in this group" (source: nice.org.uk).

Cortical's technology has a versatility that goes beyond depth of anaesthesia and may be applied to other EEG based markets, such as neuro-diagnostic, drug discovery, drug evaluation and the emerging Brain computer Interface (BCI) market.

There are considerable opportunities offered by subsequent expansion of the company's core technology through developing the product to carry out additional functions including neuro-diagnostics of changes in brain and memory functions to provide early warning of degenerative diseases, pain response and tranquiliser monitoring for trauma patients in intensive care units.

While the current array of bedside monitoring and imaging systems in the critical care environment has led to dramatic reductions in mortality, they do not as yet involve the continuous monitoring of brain function. This is widely acknowledged to be a major problem, as the care and management of the critically ill patient is ultimately all about the brain.

The continuous monitoring of a patients' brain state is not only necessary to diagnose and manage acute deteriorations in brain function that may have long lasting effects, but also to aid in the optimal administration of sedation and analgesia. Sedation and analgesia in the critically ill patient play a pivotal role in their care and is necessary to minimize patient distress and agitation, being essential to facilitate the utility of a wide variety of life support equipment and procedures, the most important of which is mechanical ventilation.

Study after study has shown that too deep sedation increases the time on mechanical ventilation, which leads to increases in mortality, the incidence of complications and treatment costs. Given these acknowledged advantages to brain function monitoring in the ICU why then is continuous monitoring of brain function not currently available?

There are two main reasons for this:

1. Firstly, the size and the complexity of configuration of most approaches to monitoring brain function are simply not capable of being adapted for use in the busy and crowded ICU environment.

2. Secondly, in those monitoring approaches that could be potentially deployed at the bedside, they depend on physiologically uncertain principles of operation that are not relevant, or meaningfully interpretable, in the context of the critically ill patient.

Cortical aims to address both these limitations by the further development and trialling of the novel bedside and remotely deployable Australian manufactured and designed, electroencephalographically based (EEG-based), BARM system. The BARM is configured to efficiently image and display complex information related to the clinically relevant state of the brain.

The BARM is not only expected to address the shortcomings of these EEG-based DoA approaches, and thus realise their documented promise, but to extend the functionality of bedside EEG monitoring to the objective monitoring of pain, a measure also vital to the management of the sedated mechanically ventilated critically ill patient.

In Australia between 2015 and 2016 there were approximately 149,000 admissions to ICU of which 48,000 required continuous ventilatory support (CVS) and thus required sedation, pain relief and who would have potentially benefited from an instrumental approach to imaging brain activity. Given that the average patient time on CVS was 96 hours in Australia, this equates to potentially 4.5 million hours of instrumental monitoring and approximately a quantity of 188,000 of 24-hour single patient-use sensors to image brain activity. In the USA, based on 1.5 million ICU patients (30% CVS) requiring CVS, and given that the first episode of an average patient time on CVS is 96 hours, this equates to 144 million hours of instrumental monitoring and approximately 6 million of 24-hour single patient use sensors to image brain activity. For the European Union (EU), based on similar statistics to USA, there would be an estimated 5 million single patient use sensors, used per annum. Total market opportunity per annum of the US, Western Europe and Australian markets only, would be approximately 11.188 million 24-hour single-use patient sensors per annum, which with an average cost of $AU20 per single patient use sensor, would represent a total revenue stream conservatively estimated to be of the order of $AU223.8 million per annum.

The BARM system is protected by five patent families in multiple jurisdictions worldwide consisting of 22 granted patents. Cortical will continue to drive the development of the BAR monitor, maintain its intellectual property and concentrate on obtaining regulatory approval for the BAR monitor.

Cortical has now commenced preparations for a sales program of the device in Europe, Australia, New Zealand and further development is also underway in Korea and Singapore. A USA based distributorship is expected to follow once Cortical attains the FDA certification.

Cortical's Brain Anesthesia Response Monitor ('BARM") has now been used in further successful trials at Strathfield Private Hospital in Sydney. Strathfield is part of the Ramsay private hospital group.

Cortical announced a number of developments during the period which included:-

- In July 2019 it was announced that the Company was trialling the Brain Anaesthesia Response Monitor ("BARM") at Southampton University Hospital in the UK.

- On 29 September 2019 Globaluck, the Company's South Korean exclusive distributor of the BARM, confirmed it has now received Korean KGMP certification. This regulatory milestone, the KGMP certificate of approval for its BARM (Class II Medical Device) from the Korea Good Manufacturing Practice (KGMP) followed an independent Korean audit of Cortical's facility in Scoresby, Victoria during July 2019. KGMP certification is required by the Korean Ministry of Food and Drug Safety (MFDS) before placement of Class II, III, and IV medical devices on the South Korean market.

- In the March 2020 quarter it was announced that the Company had secured an investment of $250,000 from IntuitiveX ("IX") and Korean based VC investor Gentium Partners ("GP") by the issue of 12,500,000 shares at $0.02 per share. Mr Charles Chang and Mr Ashley Zimpel joined the Cortical board following the resignations of Cortical directors Mr Gary Todd and Mr David Liley. BPH director David Breeze remained as a Cortical board member.

IX is a Seattle-based life science consulting firm and incubator. Its management team is comprised of life science entrepreneurs, physicians, investors, and innovators. It brings a combined 100+ years of experience in R&D, Clinical, IP Strategy, Prototyping, Product Development, and Commercialisation. IX catalyzes medical innovation by identifying novel and timely ideas and applying its resources to make them possible. From initial concept to final commercialisation, IntuitiveX has the in-house knowledge and network to meet the unique needs of the most innovative life science companies in the world. The Intuitive X team will assist Cortical in the FDA regulatory approval process. It has investments in eleven MedTech, digital health, robotics to augmented reality, and 3-D printing to biotech and brings to Cortical extensive experience in the US capital raising and commercialisation arena.

Gentium Partners Inc is a FSS licensed asset management company based in Seoul, South Korea. It was established in 2018 by professionals who have broad experience in domestic and global financial institutions. Previously, the partners have headed up divisions at Morgan Stanley, Bankers Trust, KB Bank, Commerzbank, and Meritz Securities. Using their collective broad network and experience, GP was created to assist venture companies, particularly those in the startup stages, with mentoring and fund raising. GP also assists and invests in promising pre-IPO companies. While sector agnostic, GP prefers to invest in companies with innovative technologies and/or ideas, particularly when they are impactful in healthcare, environment, and lifestyle. Among some of GP's investments are: the leading urban farm business in Korea; B2C payment technology based on unique Bluetooth identifier; a biomedical startup with a breakthrough approach for diagnosing and treating amyloid diseases; a 3D smart camera system to enable contactless input to avoid fomite; and "hycore" for electrifying a 26" bicycle, just to name a few.

- In the June 2020 quarter it was announced that Cortical has entered into a non-exclusive Licence and Co-operation Agreement with Philips Healthcare North America Corp ("Philips"), which will enable Cortical to interface its BARM into the Philips IntelliVue and Patient Information Center (PIC iX) Monitoring Systems using the IntelliBridge integration product line.

- Cortical has now begun the FDA 510K filing process for BARM in the USA assisted by its strategic investor IX. The Food and Drug Administration ("FDA") is the federal agency of the United States Department of Health and Human Services which regulates the sale of medical device products (including diagnostic tests) in the U.S. and monitors the safety of all regulated medical products. FDA approval is a necessary precursor for sales of BARM to commence in the USA. Cortical already has achieved both CE (Europe) and TGA (Australian) registration and is currently awaiting final approval of the Company's registration application to the Korean Ministry of Food and Drug Safety.

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About Cortical Dynamics Ltd

Cortical Dynamics LtdCortical Dynamics Ltd is an Australian Medical Device unlisted public company headquartered in Perth, Western Australia with operations in Scoresby, Victoria.

Focused on commercialising the intellectual property originally developed at Swinburne University in Melbourne. The core-product the Brain Anaesthesia Response (BARM) System has been developed with the objective of better detecting the effect of anaesthetic agents on brain activity, aiding anaesthetists in keeping patients optimally anaesthetized.

The BAR monitoring system is based on recent innovative developments in our understanding of how the brain's rhythmic electrical activity, EEG, is produced. This approach produces indices directly related to the physiological state of the brain, which is fundamentally different to all other currently available devices.

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