Date: Apr 28, 2016 Author: Vahradian, Andrew Source: (
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Bionik Laboratories completed its all-stock acquisition of Interactive Motion Technologies, Inc. (IMT), a Boston-based developer of robotic systems that provide adaptive therapy to patients with upper and lower body mobility challenges caused by neurological disorders.
Under the terms of the transaction, IMT shareholders received an aggregate of 23,650,000 shares of Bionik's common stock. Furthermore, Jules Fried, IMT's Chief Executive Officer, has been appointed as Vice President of U.S. Operations, while IMT's Co-Founder and Chairman, Dr. Hermano Krebs, has been appointed as the Chief Science Officer of the combined company. Bionik will maintain IMT's U.S. operations in Boston.
IMT offers the InMotion Interactive Therapy, an exoskeletal robotic platform that provides rehabilitation solutions for patients with central nervous system disorders or other neurological conditions due to stroke or cerebral palsy. The technology originated out of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and was initially known as the MIT-Manus. The platform consists of three upper extremity clinical rehabilitation products, ARM, WRIST and HAND, that are all commercialized, and a lower-body therapy (ANKLE) and gait product, which are both still in development.
The InMotion ARM robotic system is indicated to rehabilitate stroke patients with upper body neurological limitations. InMotion WRIST is capable of overcoming most forms of hypertonicity to lift a severely impaired neurologic patient's hand against gravity, and provides the patient with a range of motion consistent with a normal functioning human wrist. Practitioners can use WRIST as a stand-alone treatment option or in addition to the InMotion ARM to offer progressive modular robotic neurorehabilitation. IMT's InMotion HAND robot provides grasp and release training with flexible positioning functionalities and is capable of continuously adapting to the patient's needs.
The InMotion ANKLE system allows paraplegics, as well as other wheelchair users, the ability to rehabilitate through walking and other motion and utilizes the same design principles as the company's upper extremity rehabilitation systems. For patients suffering from problems of walking and gait associated with neurological disorders, IMT has plans to develop a novel treatment that employs a gravity-based methodology to train gait including balance. A prototype of this gait system is currently being tested at MIT.
IMT has commercialized its three upper extremity products and currently markets the systems in more than 20 countries, including the United States. For the 2015 fiscal year, IMT's three commercialized systems generated approximately $2 million in revenues.
This transaction expands Bionik's product offerings and adds further neurorehabilitation technologies to the company's intellectual property (IP) portfolio. Through this deal, management expects a certain amount of synergies to occur and noted that Bionik will continue to identify incremental synergistic robotic opportunities to continue to build its product portfolio.
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