Myomo shares (NYSE:MYO) have rocketed around 17% on Monday after the company announced that its application to have its wearable upper-body medical technology listed in medical coding systems has received a “favorable preliminary decision”.
Myomo filed its application to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) in December of last year, in which Myomo pushed for the assignment of Healthcare Common Procedure Coding System (HCPCS) codes – also known as “L” codes – to their medical technology. In essence, this would mean that Myomo’s technology would be assigned a unique code, meaning that Medicare beneficiaries would receive greater access to such technology.
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As a result, Myomo shares are up 17.15% at the time of writing to $3.68 USD per share, marking the firm’s steepest share price increase this month and bringing the firm’s market cap to $44.8 million.
Dr. Brandon Green, Chief Medical Officer of Myomo, said: “We are very grateful to CMS and the whole HCPCS Workgroup for their preliminary decision to assign L Codes for our MyoPro line of powered orthoses.”
Myomo is a medical robotics company specializing in offering wearable technology to people who have paralyzed arms and hands. The firm’s MyoPro product line features powered braces which fit onto paralyzed arms and restore movement. The MyoPro arm brace includes sensors which detect weak muscle signals sent along the arm from the brain. The brace then processes the signals and activates electric motors which work to move the arm in the same way as the brain signals originally would have done.
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Patients may lose movement in their arms or hands for a number of reasons, such as through stroke, spinal injury, or a neuro-muscular disability such as multiple sclerosis. Myomo claims that the MyoPro is recommended by top hospitals and is the only product of its type in the world for patients with the aforementioned conditions, as well as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis or brachial plexus injury. As such, the MyoPro technology is patent protected. According to Myomo CEO Paul Gudonis, there are approximately 3 million individuals in the US with some sort of upper-limb paralysis – around 750,000 of which may be eligible for MyoPro orthonics.
Previously, Myomo announced first quarter 2018 results on Wednesday, May 9th. The firm posted total revenue of $313,000 in the first quarter 2018 – a 45% increase from the same period in 2017. In addition, the firm also reported an increased field sales team by over 100%, and the announcement that Myomo can now fit patients in Germany and Canada.
Featured image: MidasLetter
