NeuroMotor Pen, Tool for Early Disease Diagnosis, Soon Widely Available

Manus Neurodynamica, a medical technology company, has raised £750,000 in a financing round to support the rollout of NeuroMotor Pen, a digital pen with a patented sensor technology to help diagnose at early stages movement disorders like Parkinson’s disease.

The funding, worth about $950,000, will also be used to develop new technologies with clinical applications.

The NeuroMotor Pen combines sensor technologies linked with a software that can record and analyze limb and hand movements, Manus states in a press release. The pen is connected to a tablet on which patients do several handwriting and drawing tasks. Abnormalities in these movements are detected, allowing clinicians to access fine motor skills, and those abnormalities are then used as “digital biomarkers” of movement difficulties.

Its Edinburgh-based manufacturer describes NeuroMotor Pen as a non-invasive early detection and monitoring tool for Parkinson’s disease and other neurological diseases, both in the clinic and in clinical trials worldwide. Tasks required for evaluation can be performed in a person’s home.

According to the company’s website, the pen can help in decisions involving differential diagnosis, especially in distinguishing Parkinson’s from essential tremor, a neurological condition common to older adults that typically affects the hands. It also can be used to monitor disease severity in Parkinson’s patients.

The financing round was led by Par Equity, with the support from the Scottish Investment Bank, the investment arm of Scottish Enterprise, and Old College Capital, the venture fund of the University of Edinburgh.

“We are excited to be working with Par Equity and our other new shareholders to accelerate the commercialisation of our neuromotor assessment technology,” Rutger Zietsma, chief executive officer of Manus Neurodynamica, said in the release.

“From our very first meeting it was obvious that we and Par Equity shared a vision of the global potential for the product, not just in Parkinson’s disease but in many other clinical indications,” Zietsma added.

Manus has sold several systems to hospitals across the U.K and in the Netherlands. The company has also secured a contract to develop a version of NeuroMotor Pen to be used in surgeries and other primary care clinics.

“Manus Neurodynamica has enjoyed positive outcomes in clinical trials at home and internationally, and we are happy to provide continued support to the Company through the next stage of its growth plans,” said Kerry Sharp, director, Scottish Investment Bank.