$2m for Neuromonics

A new technology developed at Curtin University and currently being commercialised by Sydney company, Neuromonics, is seeking to change the widely held view that the medical condition tinnitus cannot be treated.

Neuromonics has raised more than $2 million from investors so that it can market its breakthrough treatment, first in Australia and soon internationally.

While the company is now well funded and progressing with its commercial expansion, it has been a long road.

The technology was originally invented by Curtin academic and current Neuromonics director Dr Paul Davis, who is a tinnitus sufferer and was frustrated by the lack of treatments.

Initial attempts to raise capital were unsuccessful, and it was only after Perth advisory firm TechStart Australia got involved and developed a business plan that Neuromonics gained backing, primarily from venture capital firm Innovation Capital.

Conrad Crisafulli, who was previously managing director of TechStart and is now Curtin’s director of IP commercialisation, said one of the key steps was basing the company in Sydney, partly to be in a bigger market but mainly to help it recruit key staff.

The company recruited Macquarie Bank chief executive Peter Hanley, who is backed by a board that includes Innovation Capital co-founder Paul Naughton, ResMed vice-president Robert Frater and former Cochlear chief executive Ronald West.

Tinnitus is a common medical condition that involves a ringing or buzzing sound and, while for many people it is simply annoying, for others it is chronic and debilitating.

Neuromonics’ treatment program uses a portable device that delivers an acoustic stimulus comprising customised patterns of sound, incorporated within music.

The company conducted extensive clinical trials prior to launching the treatment last year and Mr Hanley said one of its biggest challenges was convincing GPs that the treatment really did work.

Neuromonics has opened several clinics around Australia and is also working with accredited audiology clinics.

It is moving into the US later this year and plans to enter Europe in 2006.