ARTICLE SUMMARY:
New, more convenient treatments for obstructive sleep apnea—GLP-1 drugs with OSA-specific approvals and less-invasive hypoglossal nerve stimulation devices—are poised to break the hegemony of CPAP as the gold standard. For neuromodulation device companies, it’s the perfect innovation opportunity: a successful first mover in Inspire Medical, a validated mechanism of action, and a significantly undertreated patient population suffering with a potentially deadly disease.
Inspire Medical is a shining example of medtech’s promise, for patients and investors. Spun off from Medtronic in 2007 to develop a novel implantable neurostimulation therapy for obstructive sleep apnea, the company went public in 2018 and today has a market cap of just over $6 billion.
Tim Herbert, Inspire Medical’s chairman and CEO, had led the project within Medtronic, and went with the spinout to develop it further. The company has innovated a surgically implanted therapy that, guided by breathing patterns, delivers neurostimulation to the hypoglossal nerve (HN) to cause the tongue to move forward and unblock a sleeping OSA patient’s obstructed airway. Creating a market from scratch, the firm had to demonstrate the clinical efficacy of a novel therapy and establish surgical referral pathways to new treating clinicians. Inspire has also paved the way for reimbursement, which it has successfully gained in all 50 states.
