U.S. Patent Awarded to Autonomix for Cancerous Tumor Treatment

Autonomix Medical Inc. has been issued a U.S. patent for its systems, methods, and devices for interventionally treating cancerous tumors and cancer-related pain.

Patent 12,064,256 (‘256 patent) is titled, “Systems and Methods for Treating Cancer and/or Augmenting Organ Function.” The company is initially advancing the development of its technology to address pancreatic cancer-related pain.

“As we continue to advance the development of this potentially groundbreaking technology, bolstering our patent protection remains a key priority,” Autonomix CEO Brad Hauser said. “Supported by recent positive preclinical results demonstrated to date, we believe the depth and breadth of our proprietary technology provides the opportunity for further evaluation and we intend to explore its potential to reduce cancer progression and metastases.”

Results from a previously completed preclinical mouse study evaluating the ability of targeted nerve ablation demonstrated statistically significant reduction of metastases and statistically significant reduction in tumor mass, further supporting that neural pathways are especially impactful in pancreatic cancer’s pathogenesis. While the company’s ongoing proof-of-concept human clinical trial is strictly focused on pain reduction from ablating target nerves near the pancreas, additional studies will explore whether these preclinical findings translate to clinically applying Autonomix’s technology. Based on the preclinical results demonstrated to date, the company intends to further explore its ablation technology’s potential to slow human pancreatic cancer growth and metastasis.

Autonomix’s first-in-class catheter-based sensing technology is covered by its global patent portfolio with more than 80 issued patents and over 40 pending patent applications. In addition to the ‘256 patent, the U.S. Patent and Trade Office has recently issued patents titled, “Endoscopic Sympathectomy Systems and Methods” and “Elongated Conductors and Methods of Making and Using the Same.”

The Company’s technology platform uses a catheter-based microchip sensing array antenna that has the ability to detect and differentiate neural signals with up to 3,000 times greater sensitivity than currently available technologies. Once target nerves are identified, Autonomix uses its proprietary radio frequency (RF) ablation technology to kill targeted nerves, enabling a precision guided sense, treat and verify approach to addressing a number of disease categories from chronic pain management to hypertension and cardiology. Current approaches, primarily relying on opioids or invasive ethanol injections, can provide only limited relief and may lead to risky side effects.

Autonomix is a medical device company focused on advancing technologies to improve the ways nervous system diseases are diagnosed and treated. The company claims its catheter-based microchip sensing array can enable, for the first time ever, transvascular diagnosis and treatment of diseases involving the peripheral nervous system virtually anywhere in the body.

Autonomix is initially developing this technology for pain treatment, with initial trials focused on pancreatic cancer, a condition that causes debilitating pain and is without a reliable solution. The company’s technology constitutes a platform to address dozens of potential indications, including cardiology, hypertension, and chronic pain management, across a wide disease spectrum. The technology, however, is investigational and has not yet been cleared for marketing in the United States.