Pain is the most common reason people seek health care and the leading cause of disability in the world, affecting more than 30% of people worldwide.
As president of the Neuromodulation business at Boston Scientific, Jim Cassidy and his team around the world are continually seeking to bring new therapies to a wider population of people living with chronic pain.
"The common theme for Boston Scientific employees is advancing science for life,” he notes. “How do we help more patients?”
With Relievant Medsystems, Inc., officially a new part of the portfolio under his leadership, Cassidy shares his thoughts on the value the recent acquisition brings to the company and our patients in the year, and years, to come.
Can you explain what the focus of our Neuromodulation business is?
Our purpose is to provide meaningful innovations to help people living with chronic pain and movement disorder conditions.
Our advanced interventional chronic pain portfolio includes spinal cord stimulation, a therapy that interrupts neural signals to reduce the perception of pain; radiofrequency ablation, which uses thermal energy to interrupt pain signals; and an interspinous spacer procedure designed to deliver relief from the leg and back pain associated with moderate lumbar spinal stenosis. It's a dynamic category where patients are facing significant unmet needs.
What is Relievant known for?
Relievant is a company that offers the only therapy cleared by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to treat vertebrogenic pain: the Intracept® Procedure.
Vertebrogenic pain is a type of chronic lower back pain that occurs when the endplates of the vertebrae in the spine become irritated, either due to normal wear and tear over time or to degenerative disc disease. The Intracept Procedure uses targeted radiofrequency energy to ablate the basivertebral nerve, stopping the nerve from transmitting pain signals to the brain. It’s a same-day outpatient procedure that’s minimally invasive. Five-year data shows it can offer durable pain relief after a single procedure, as well as reduce opiate use in patients.
Why is Relievant such a good match for Boston Scientific?
In the United States, more than five million people live with vertebrogenic pain. It’s a significant unmet need, and with our acquisition of Relievant, we have the tremendous potential to help even more people living with chronic pain through a life-changing therapy. Adding this treatment to our interventional pain management portfolio also has the benefit of differentiating us from our competitors, driving our sustained business growth and supporting our category leadership strategy.
What are your hopes for the Intracept Procedure going forward into 2024?
What’s particularly great for the large patient base dealing with chronic vertebrogenic pain is that there’s national insurance coverage for the Intracept Procedure through Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield, Cigna Healthcare and Humana as well as through local Medicare plans, meaning more than 150 million people can access this therapy.
The addition of this fantastic platform to our therapy portfolio will add to our growth and category leadership strategy. It will also help us in our mission to offer physicians the broadest selection of evidence-based treatment options that address multiple pain targets and change patients' lives.