Irish Medical Start-Up Aiming to Treat Chronic Migraine by Preventing Pain Signals Travelling to Patients’ Brain

• The TARA project aims to treat chronic migraine by developing an implantable medical device that discharges mild electronic signals to disrupt pain signals.

• Approximately 2% of the world’s population suffers from chronic migraine, meaning that the project has enormous potential.

• The project has secured €4.5 million in funding from the European Union.

• Project website https://www.tara-project.eu/

Irish bio-electronics start-up, Capri Medical Limited, is collaborating with experts from across Europe on a pioneering research project that could treat chronic migraine by preventing pain signals from being transmitted to a patient’s brain. The €4.5 million project, which is being funded by the European Union, will see the development of an implantable medical device that discharges mild electronic signals to disrupt the pain signals that travel between our spines and brains. 

Known as neurostimulation therapy, this radical form of pain treatment has already been used to improve the lives of people who have been severely paralyzed or those who suffer from debilitating illnesses and cancers. Today, the majority of migraine patients are treated with a combination of high-dose opioids, triptans, prophylactics and botox.  As such, Fergal Ward, CEO and Founder of Capri Medical, believes that sufferers of chronic migraine are severely in need of an innovative treatment that can prevent the onset of what can be disabling headaches.  “Neurostimulation is a last treatment option, despite often being more effective than pharma treatments”.

“Today, the highest penetrated neurostimulation market only serves 10% of patients. We’re building a platform to disrupt this care continuum and enable more physicians to treat more patients”.    

 The three-year project brings together expert researchers from 10 different European organisations and spans seven countries. The TARA project, as it is known, got underway in September and is being led by Professor Massimo Piotto from the University of Pisa (Italy). Professor Piotto believes that the three-year project could change the lives of chronic migraine sufferers around the world. 

“The World Health Organization classifies severe migraine attacks as among the most disabling illnesses, comparable to dementia and quadriplegia”.

“It’s defined as a headache persistent for more than 3 months or a severe headache persistent for more than 15 days within a month”.

“Approximately 2% of the world’s population suffers from chronic migraine”. 

“The TARA project has the potential to help people who might otherwise be compelled to rely on drugs that can have significant side effects”.

Michael Browne, CEO, at Crowdhelix, an Open Innovation platform that forges links between an international network of excellent researchers and innovative companies, believes that the TARA project is indicative of the enormous potential that can be unleashed when innovative start-ups and prestigious research institutions collaborate.  

“Crowdhelix is delighted to play a key role in this pioneering project”. 

“It underscores the value of bringing business and research organisations together to develop solutions that have real world impact”.

“We hope to contribute to this project by helping to bridge the gap between industry and research so that the key results are communicated to stakeholders and end-users across Europe”.

Experts from Ireland, Italy, Slovenia, Belgium, Ukraine, Switzerland and the United Kingdom are driving the Tara Project, which secured funding through the European Union’s Horizon Europe research programme.

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