electroCore, Inc. Announces Extension of NHS England’s Innovation and Technology Payment (ITP) Program to Fund Continued Use of gammaCore™ in England

ITP program providing reimbursement for gammaCore™ extended to March. 31, 2021 with option for additional three years

The potential contract value if the three-year extension option is exercised could be up to approximately £3.6 million (or approximately $4.6 million based on the current exchange rate)

BASKING RIDGE, N.J., Oct. 01, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- electroCore, Inc. (Nasdaq: ECOR), a commercial-stage bioelectronic medicine company, today announced that England’s National Health Service (NHS) has extended the Innovation and Technology Payment (ITP) Program for the use of gammaCore for the treatment of cluster headache in adults for an additional six months. The extension will run through March 2021 and via this program, which started in April 2019, gammaCore will continue to be reimbursed for those patients in England who suffer from cluster headache and respond to the therapy. The proposed contract includes the option to extend for up to an additional three years through March 31, 2024. The potential contract value if the three-year extension option is exercised could be up to approximately £3.6 million (or approximately $4.6 million based on the current exchange rate). The award notice can be found here.

“The extension of NHS England’s ITP program will ensure that our established patient base can continue to access a treatment proven to work for them, whilst also supporting the further adoption of gammaCore in new patients suffering from cluster headache, who are yet to experience the therapy,” said Iain Strickland, electroCore’s VP of European Operations. “Importantly, gammaCore remains the only device approved by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) for use in patients with drug resistant cluster headaches, fulfilling an important unmet need.”

The ITP Program is designed to support the adoption of innovations and technologies in the NHS market through the removal of significant financial barriers for both NHS commissioners and providers. The program provides funding to these innovative medical technologies and promotes a broader set of activities with Academic Health Science Networks in order to deliver improvements in the quality and efficacy of patient care.

About gammaCore™

gammaCore™ (nVNS) is the first non-invasive, hand-held medical therapy applied at the neck to treat migraine and cluster headache through the utilization of a mild electrical stimulation to the vagus nerve that passes through the skin. Designed as a portable, easy-to-use technology, gammaCore can be self-administered by patients, as needed, without the potential side effects associated with commonly prescribed drugs. When placed on a patient’s neck over the vagus nerve, gammaCore stimulates the nerve’s afferent fibers, which may lead to a reduction of pain in patients.

gammaCore is FDA cleared in the United States for adjunctive use for the preventive treatment of cluster headache in adult patients, the acute treatment of pain associated with episodic cluster headache in adult patients, the acute treatment of pain associated with migraine headache in adult patients, and the prevention of migraine in adult patients. gammaCore is CE-marked in the European Union for the acute and/or prophylactic treatment of primary headache (Migraine, Cluster Headache, Trigeminal Autonomic Cephalalgias and Hemicrania Continua) and Medication Overuse Headache in adults. In 2019, NICE published an evidence-based Medical Technology Guidance document recommending the use of gammaCore for cluster headache within NHS England.

Safety and efficacy of gammaCore have not been evaluated in the following patients:

• Patients diagnosed with narrowing of the arteries (carotid atherosclerosis)
• Patients who have had surgery to cut the vagus nerve in the neck (cervical vagotomy)
• Pediatric patients
• Pregnant women
• Patients with clinically significant hypertension, hypotension, bradycardia, or tachycardia
  

Patients should not use gammaCore if they:

• Have an active implantable medical device, such as a pacemaker, hearing aid implant, or any implanted electronic device
• Have a metallic device such as a stent, bone plate, or bone screw implanted at or near their neck
• Are using another device at the same time (e.g., TENS Unit, muscle stimulator) or any portable electronic device (e.g., mobile phone)
  

For additional safety information please see Instruction for Use here.

In the United States, the FDA has not cleared gammaCore for the treatment of pneumonia and/or respiratory disorders such as acute respiratory stress disorder associated with COVID-19.

Please refer to the gammaCore Instructions for Use for all of the important warnings and precautions before using or prescribing gammaCore.

The United States FDA issued an Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) for acute use of the gammaCore Sapphire CV device at home or in a healthcare setting to treat adult patients with known or suspected COVID-19 who are experiencing exacerbation of asthma-related dyspnea and reduced airflow, and for whom approved drug therapies are not tolerated or provide insufficient symptom relief as assessed by their healthcare provider, by using non-invasive vagus nerve stimulation (nVNS) on either side of the patient’s neck, available under an emergency access mechanism called an EUA.

gammaCore Sapphire CV has neither been cleared nor approved for acute use at home or in a healthcare setting to treat adult patients with known or suspected COVID-19 who are experiencing exacerbation of asthma-related dyspnea and reduced airflow, and for whom approved drug therapies are not tolerated or provide insufficient symptom relief as assessed by their healthcare provider, by using non-invasive vagus nerve stimulation (nVNS) on either side of the patient’s neck during the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic.

gammaCore Sapphire CV has been authorized only for the duration of the declaration that circumstances exist justifying the authorization of the emergency use of medical devices under section 564(b)(1) of the Act, 21 U.S.C. § 360bbb-3(b)(1), unless the authorization is terminated or revoked.

Further information is available at:

Authorization Letter: https://www.fda.gov/media/139967/download

Fact Sheet for Healthcare Providers: https://www.fda.gov/media/139968/download

Fact Sheet for Patients: https://www.fda.gov/media/139969/download

Instructions for gammaCore use https://www.fda.gov/media/139970/download

About electroCore, Inc.

electroCore, Inc. is a commercial stage bioelectronic medicine company dedicated to improving patient outcomes through its platform non-invasive vagus nerve stimulation therapy initially focused on the treatment of multiple conditions in neurology and rheumatology. The company’s initial targets are the preventative treatment of cluster headache and acute treatment of migraine and episodic cluster headache.

For more information, visit www.electrocore.com.

Forward-Looking Statement

This press release may contain forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, statements about anticipated government funding arrangements provided by the NHS and NICE, electroCore's business prospects, sales and marketing, and product development plans, future cash flow projections, anticipated costs, its pipeline or potential markets for its technologies, the availability and impact of payer coverage, the potential product use for other indications, and other statements that are not historical in nature, particularly those that utilize terminology such as "anticipates," "will," "expects," "believes," "intends," other words of similar meaning, derivations of such words and the use of future dates. Actual results could differ from those projected in any forward-looking statements due to numerous factors. Such factors include, among others, the ability to raise the additional funding needed to continue to pursue electroCore’s business, sales and marketing, and product development plans, the inherent uncertainties associated with developing new products or technologies, the ability to successfully commercialize gammaCore™, competition in the industry in which electroCore operates and overall market conditions. Any forward-looking statements are made as of the date of this press release, and electroCore assumes no obligation to update the forward-looking statements or to update the reasons why actual results could differ from those projected in the forward-looking statements, except as required by law.  Investors should consult all of the information set forth herein and should also refer to the risk factor disclosure set forth in the reports and other documents electroCore files with the SEC available at www.sec.gov.

Investors:
Hans Vitzthum
LifeSci Advisors
617-430-7578
[email protected]

or

Media Contact:
Jackie Dorsky
electroCore
973-290-0097