You have to have a clearer point about ClearPoint
revisiting the old MRI neurosurgery platform company
Intro
ClearPoint has always been a company that functions within a very specialized & novel type of operating environment that isn’t found in a lot of places, so it’s never been a very big company. Although at times its market cap certainly got up there.
ClearPoint leaned into some of their technical strengths to showcase early innovation in gene therapy with AADC deficiency which has nearly 15 years of human data. Recently this drug (now called Upstaza) BLA submission was submitted (this followed nearly 4 years of delays— some of which was created by Covid-19 and the company developing the drug). The EMA has had the drug cleared for quite a while now. Part of the reason they succeeded first (clinically) where others have failed is that it’s not enough to simply infuse a drug near an area of the brain from a stereotactic headframe. Drugs will flow back into the cannula. Perivascular spread happens, distributing the therapeutic into unwanted anatomical areas.
Early initial success has led them into becoming a neuro CRO specialized to local drug & device delivery co. Conquering these problems leads to highly satisfactory safety profile along with improved efficacy, which you can only begin to understand further by falling down the rabbit hole.
WATCH ME - LITT PRISM INTRO
If you’re not aware, a new laser ablation device has made its way into US markets. It’s marketed as the ClearPoint Prism. If my memory is serving me right, it officially gained approval in neuro for the US in September or October of 2022. In neurosurgery, it’s the third commercial device to be approved for laser ablations.
Paraphrasing Dr. Richardson, “the ablations are much faster, and with small ablations near eloquent tissue, prism is 10 times safer than any other system.”
If there were dimensions of features for you to think about it’s this:
Refresh rate of the monitor which shows the heat of the probe.
Accuracy of the probes reported temperature over very small distances.
Distance at which the probe is controllable (CLS/Prism have brought that length down substantially).
Safety for smaller ablations near critical (eloquent - a formal term) brain tissue.
Lack of necessary cooling increases the number of surgeries you can do, along with the accuracy improving efficacy of surgeries performed.
Efficacy is improved by greater accuracy.
TL;DR —It’s the newest toy in the box for neurosurgeons with LITT and that’s exciting because LITT is useful for a lot of different types of surgeries (drug resistant epilepsy, tumors, or nasty brain injury near eloquent brain tissue).
Encouragingly the company which built Prism temporarily shifted their focus into neuro (away from prostate). The stock of CLS also barely exists in terms of its equity valuation, as they keep murdering shareholders for just months of cash burn. They are from what I can tell, struggling with reimbursement for prostate, thus making neuro a more profitable venture.
Prism is one of a number of devices/developments that ClearPoint encapsulates, so it remains a critical area of development for the company going forward. It seems like CLS.B is going to endlessly flush cash into raises or until it wins, so it’s exciting to see them get into the OR with CLPT.
Getting this product into the OR across the US will probably generate more commercial activity than ClearPoint has ever observed on a day-to-day basis. Practices will likely begin to advertise their laser ablation procedures in neuro as being safer for having this device. It was with great personal joy when I heard of an OCD case being addressed successfully with this device.
You can read more about Prism/CLS-TRANBERG on CLS’s website. The company that made the device blew themselves up getting it to market and is now down -72% YTD & -99.82% all time. I personally put it as this year’s short in that fintwit competition ran by the handle with Nelson as a cartoon character profile picture. I don’t know their handle so if you do, feel free to send this to them.
MY PRIMARY MESSAGE TO YOU ABOUT THE LASER
REIMBURSEMENT FOR MASS MARKET INDICATIONS IS AVAILABLE AND INCREASING IN VALUE
Apologies for the large text, but it’s the most important bit of this entire post.
This is a relatively short post, but there’s a lot in here and I’m not going to explain everything. As of the date I write this I’m not long CLPT shares, but this is subject to change.