Nyxoah and America’s Vanderbilt University (Nashville, Tennessee) have entered into an exclusive licensing agreement. As part of the terms, the Belgian health-tech company agrees to pay the university an up-front fee as well as payments based on regulatory, development and commercialization milestones and royalties on future product sales. In exchange, the Wallonian company has exclusive rights to continue development on a treatment method invented at Vanderbilt.
With the agreement in place, Nyxoah will work to develop a next-generation neurostimulator to treat obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) – the most common sleep disordered breathing condition. The new treatments focus, among others, on stimulating the ansa cervicalis, the efferent fiber of the glossopharyngeal nerve or nerves that innervate the palatoglossus and/or the palatopharyngeus muscle.
“We’re delighted to start collaborating with Vanderbilt University, a worldwide recognized US university in this field of research, through this exclusive licensing agreement. This will open new horizons in the field of neurostimulation technologies, improving and expanding current treatment solutions for OSA patients, and will reinforce our future pipeline,” says Olivier Taelman, CEO of Nyxoah. “The upcoming collaboration with Vanderbilt University Medical Center, together with our groundbreaking approach in neurostimulation and our collaboration with international key opinion leaders, will help us strengthen our position as an innovator offering patient-centered solutions.”