Argo Calls Massachusetts Home, Shows Cutting-Edge Tech (VIDEO)

It’s enough to make the most devout science fiction fan’s head turn—an exoskeleton that allows paralysis patients to walk. Not medical futurism. It’s clinical reality.

Argo Medical Technologies Ltd., an Israeli company that makes walking devices for paraplegics is setting up shop in Massachusetts. During the AdvaMed 2012 conference, company representatives, along with local politicians, life-sciences leaders and a patient, declared that the company now will call the Bay State home to its U.S. headquarters. Located in the town of Marlborough, Argo plans to hire up to 40 people within the next three to five years. Marketing, clinical, regulatory and reimbursement operations will be located in Massachusetts. Research and production will remain in Yokneam, Israel. The company’s founder, Dr. Amit Goffer, is a quadriplegic who was inspired to invent the exoskeleton device because of his own personal story.

brightcove.createExperiences();

The patient on hand to demonstrate the company’s impressive technology was Theresa Hannigan, a former Army sergeant and Vietnam veteran who was left paralyzed two years ago as a result of a progressive autoimmune disease that she contracted while in the Army. Usually confined to a wheelchair, she demonstrated Argo’s ReWalk device by climbing down from a podium with crutches and walking through the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center.

ReWalk is an exoskeleton suit that almost looks like lower-limb body armor that allows people with disabilities—whether from accidents, injuries, or neurodegnerative disorders—to stand and walk without assistance. Users adjust settings on a watchband for standing, walking, and climbing stairs, and a tilt sensor picks up motions and sends them to a computer controlling a motor and gear on either leg.

“I am standing, and the doctors told me I would never stand again,” said Hannigan. “This is life altering. It gives me independence. The hardest thing about this device is learning to balance. Once you learn to balance, you’re home free.”

It helps return “normalcy” to her life, she said.

“It’s the simple things that I miss that I can’t do in my wheelchair,” Hannigan said. “When I’m sitting on the couch, it is difficult and time-consuming to transition into my wheelchair for a simple task, like getting a glass of water. With the ReWalk, I can just stand up, walk in to the kitchen, get a glass in the cabinet and pour it for myself.”

Hannigan has been training with the ReWalk at the National Center of Excellence for the Medical Consequences of Spinal Cord Injury at the James J. Peters V.A. Medical Center in Bronx, N.Y., and is planning to use the exoskeleton on October 20, 2012 to walk a one-mile road race in Lindenhurst, N.Y., to raise money for the organization Hope for the Warriors, which helps U.S. service men and women.

Argo CEO Larry Jasinski, who spent more than a decade at Boston Scientific Corp., told reporters gathered at the meeting that the 11-year-old Israeli company will increase hiring in Massachusetts if the ReWalk device is approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The mobility device was approved by European regulators last month, and Argo plans to file its U.S. application with the FDA later this month.

“We believe [Massachusetts] is a great base for us and for anyone from the U.S. who wants to work with Europe and Israel,” Jasinski said. “Our goal is to make the Argo ReWalk device available to anyone in the world who wants it.”

Governor Deval Patrick (D) joined Hannigan and Jasinski during the announcement. Patrick said Argo’s move was the latest example of state officials’ ability to draw out-of-state and overseas life-sciences companies to Massachusetts.

“Not only is Argo going to bring new jobs to our life-sciences supercluster, it’s also going to bring amazing, groundbreaking technology,” the governor said.

In an initiative announced in 2008, the state is investing $1 billion over 10 years to build up the biotechnology and medical device sectors. No public money was spent to entice the Israeli company to come to Massachusetts, state officials said. According to Patrick, medical devices make up the largest percentage of the commonwealth’s exports.

“Argo’s technology is truly life-changing,” said Susan Windham-Bannister, Ph.D., president and CEO of the Massachusetts Life Sciences Center, the agency charged with implementing Patrick’s Life Sciences Initiative. “Millions of people with neurodegenerative diseases and spinal cord injuries, including many of our returning veterans, have been waiting for this kind of breakthrough technology.”

Hannigan said she was grateful not only to be able to walk with the device, but to show off the technology to others at the trade show. “It gives me the freedom to go wherever I want to go by myself, even something like visiting my mother,” she said.

Photo caption: U.S. Army Veteran Theresa Hannigan demonstrates Argo’s ReWalk at the AdvaMed 2012 Massachusetts Pavilion. In background from left to right: Massachusetts Secretary of Veterans Affairs Coleman Nee; ARGO Board of Directors member Wayne Weisman; MassMEDIC President Tom Sommer; Massachusetts Life Sciences Center President & CEO Susan Windham-Bannister, Ph.D.; Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick; and ARGO CEO Larry Jasinski.