Alliance to Aid Diagnosis of Depression

In a move to develop brain-monitoring technology for diagnosing and treating depression, Boston Scientific Corp. (Natick, MA, USA) and Aspect Medical Systems, Inc. (Newton, MA, USA) have formed a research alliance.

Boston Scientific will provide Aspect with U.S.$25 million to fund the development of new brain-monitoring technology designed to aid the diagnosis and treatment of depression, Alzheimer's disease (AD), and other neurologic conditions. Reinforcing the significance of this alliance are findings being presented at the annual meeting of the American Psychiatric Association (APA) in Atlanta (GA, USA) in May 2005, which indicate that Aspect's technology may be able to help clinicians improve patient response to antidepressant therapy and provide early identification of cognitive decline associated with AD.

Four studies related to the use of Aspect's brain-monitoring technology in detecting and managing the treatment of neurologic and psychiatric conditions were presented at the APA meeting. The research supports previous studies indicating that Aspect's brain-monitoring technology is able to predict the effectiveness of antidepressant medication within a few days of initiating treatment. Other research presented indicated that Aspect's technology correlates with clinical assessments of mild cognitive dysfunction, which may precede the onset of AD.

"If Aspect's technology could help determine at an early time if an antidepressant therapy is likely to speed recovery, it could help make depression easier to manage, improve treatment adherence, and dramatically improve the quality of life for millions of patients,” observed Andrew Leuchter, M.D., professor of psychiatry at the Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior at the University of California, Los Angeles (USA), and chairman of Aspect's neuroscience advisory board.

Aspect and Boston Scientific will share equally in profits from products developed to treat and manage depression and other neurologic disorders. Up to 20% of the funds provided by Boston Scientific may be used to support Aspect's AD research and development initiatives. Boston currently owns about 27.4% of Aspect. Aspect has amended its shareholder rights plan to provide that Boston Scientific may acquire beneficial ownership, or commence a tender offer for, just under 29.5% (as opposed to a prior plan of 27.5%) of Aspect's stock without triggering the exercise of rights under the plan.





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