As American industrial might is increasingly challenged and bested by global competitors, the medical technology field remains a bright spot.
"Med tech is one of the few industries where America leads," says Youseph Yazdi, associate professor of biomedical engineering at Johns Hopkins University's Whiting School of Engineering and the School of Medicine, and director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Bioengineering Innovation and Design (CBID). "It's a more than $500 billion industry that America primarily owns. But Europe and China are catching up fast. This program helps America maintain that lead."
The program he is referring to is NeuroTech Harbor, which launched in fall 2022 as an NIH-funded partnership between Johns Hopkins, Howard University, and the NIH's innovative new BluePrint Medtech program. It is a technology accelerator that brings best practices from industry to fund and guide teams that have promising, innovative new solutions that prevent, diagnose, or treat nervous system disorders affecting one in three people around the world—including Parkinson's and Alzheimer's disease, epilepsy, addiction disorders, dementia, multiple sclerosis, stroke, and migraines. The goal is to ready these teams to get their first investments and clinical studies on the road to commercialization and real-world, life-saving impact.
As Yazdi sees it, 90% of federal grants to universities are about turning money into knowledge.
"Most of the basic science and technology that is in the products we use today and sell around the world, from toothpaste to Teslas, has important elements that were funded by federal government research," he says. NeuroTech Harbor, where Yazdi is the Innovation Core Director and one of six principal investigators, is part of the smaller subset of grants that are taking the reverse path. "This program turns taxpayer-funded knowledge into real money and real patient benefit by driving the creation of commercially viable medical solutions and a whole pipeline of new American high-tech medical device companies.
"Both are important for making America stronger, wealthier, and healthier," Yazdi says. "The work we do, through innovation and translation, creates products that can actually save your life. And there will be factories building this stuff with high-tech, high-paying jobs."
During NeuroTech Harbor's planned five-year operation, innovative teams with good solution concepts are rigorously reviewed and selected through a highly competitive process; they can apply for up to $500,000 in support per year for three to four years. In addition to medical and scientific support, teams also receive guidance in commercializing and marketing their devices. While venture capitalists are always scouting for investment opportunities and the next big thing, they generally want to see working prototypes that have been tested on humans. NeuroTech Harbor support is designed to take viable concepts based on sound research to this stage, allowing private capital to then enter and take them to production and the marketplace.
More than 20 teams are now being funded, with most about halfway through their development trajectories. Yazdi says he is extremely encouraged: "Every project that we've funded so far has had some highly experienced people from American medtech corporations looking at them and saying, 'Wow, this is awesome! This could actually become a blockbuster new product."
Among the teams further along is Open Water, which is creating a headband to treat major depression and obsessive-compulsive disorder via transcranial magnetic stimulation. "These are [conditions] that cost society billions, and most of that is coming from American tax payers," Yazdi says, adding that existing treatments usually involve pharmaceuticals which can come with drawbacks. The Open Water team, which includes a former Google executive and a Stanford-trained neurosurgeon, has already made and tested a rough prototype and is working on creating a smaller, streamlined version. They are also beginning to attract investors.
Some two million Americans suffer from facial pain, such as trigeminal neuralgia where blood vessels rub against nerves. Second Wave Systems is developing a minimally invasive device no larger than a grain of rice that provides wireless, pain-ending neurostimulation via ultrasound. "You could put it there right next to the nerve and when you push a button, the pain stops," Yazdi says.
"Nothing in the federal budget has a better return on investment for the American taxpayer than this type of program." Yazdi concludes. "And we're very strict. We have quarterly reviews and if [teams] don't show progress, or if they're not listening to their mentors on the business side, for example, we'll stop the funding. It is tough and that's why it's totally different."
