Transcription of The Stock Network Interview with Epiminder (ASX:EPI), CEO Dr Rohan Hoare
Lel Smits: Epiminder is testing its Minder system, an implant placed under the scalp that records brain activity around the clock, in a US study for people whose epilepsy has gone undiagnosed after hospital monitoring. The Totec study has now passed 100 patients across more than 20 US centres and Epiminder is well funded into 2028. I’m joined today by Epiminder’s CEO Dr Rohan Hoare to discuss the pace of enrolment, what’s being learnt from Minder and the path to early revenue.
Rohan, welcome back to the Stock Network.
Rohan Hoare: Well, it’s great to be back again.
Lel Smits: It’s great to have you on because when we last spoke you did say 100 enrolments would be the next milestone as that’s basically half the study done and now of course that’s been reached.
So Rohan, can you outline when does Detect end and also when does completing it change?
Rohan Hoare: Yeah, so the Detect program will enrol up to 210 patients at up to 25 sites across the US. We have 22 sites up now and over 100 patients enrolled and we’re just really excited about the pace of this given we started from a standing start at the beginning of the year. So this is nine months and a huge amount of success and I think what that says well is there’s a lot of enthusiasm from both the clinicians and also from the patients.
Both of them, the clinicians, want to provide the device and the patients want to receive it. And so this is really showing the power of what Minder is doing by being able to bring this long-term EEG monitoring and hopefully bring clarity to these patients who otherwise would not have had the answers that they’re looking for.
Lel Smits: Absolutely, now as we know Epiminder is bringing that new way of monitoring epilepsy into clinics.
Minder lets epileptologists monitor patients for months at home where they really are used to days in hospital. So Rohan, how easy has it been for clinicians to use it correctly and also can you talk us through perhaps some challenges that are unique to it?
Rohan Hoare: Sure, the idea of going from days to weeks to months is sort of has been different for the neurologists and we’re also going from a 20-channel EEG to a two-channel EEG. So they’ve had some adjustments in terms of how do you actually read the EEG, just getting their eye and getting experience and familiarity with it.
And once they’ve done that they’re super super comfortable with the technology and I’ve had clinicians remark about how clear the signals are and over very very long periods of time which is not common with scalp based systems. So we’re really sort of like breaking new ground with regards to that. So I think it’s a learning curve more than anything else that they’ve got to come up with but I think what it is doing is giving them that vehicle or that tool to be able to get these long-term insights that they would have not been able to achieve otherwise.
Lel Smits: Yes and Rohan in terms of turning that DETECT, those results really into reimbursement and revenue for MINDER, DETECT is designed to give US payers the evidence to cover MINDER. Once the results are in what happens next on the reimbursement front here and also where could the first revenue do you think come from really ahead of that broader launch?
Rohan Hoare: Yep so let me take that the first revenue first in the conversation. So we’ve been looking at revenue proof points as sort of the next phase of the MINDER rollout.
So it was really getting the DETECT program up and running, getting that humming and I think we’re talking today because we do have that humming along and then it is from there looking at finding the opportunities for early revenue proving are that we can get into the channel in various different channels whether it be a Medicare, whether it be veterans, whether it be with pharmaceuticals or other devices and even in Australia through the special access scheme. So we’re really sort of you know bringing that up as a second focus at this stage to be able to drive it with the expectation it is the revenue will be an important proof point, it’ll be nominal but it really says hey we can penetrate these channels, we can actually have success getting this to market and that then primes the pump so that when we have DETECT completed, the follow-up and DETECT completed and the G1 device approved, all which will be happening in the back half of next year, calendar next year, then we really have already primed the market and we’re ready for that full launch. So it really sort of fits together as a nice program.
Lel Smits: Rohan I appreciate the update, congratulations on the milestone and look forward to seeing what comes next for Epiminder.
Rohan Hoare: Thanks so much Lel, appreciate it.
Ends