Nocturne specializes in products and services that allow diagnosing neurologic disorders through imaging of the eye. Nocturne’s proprietary technology (patent pending) analyses 3D images of the retina, which are obtained by optical coherence tomography (OCT). OCT is a noninvasive imaging technology routinely used in ophthalmology. Standard OCT devices are affordable but are by themselves of only limited value for neurologic applications. At market entry, Nocturne offers a web service, which accepts data from standard OCT scans. The data is then analyzed with Nocturne’s technology, and a report is sent back to the customer. With its service, Nocturne addresses customers in pharmaceutical research, academia, and clinical care. More than 10 million people suffer from neurological disorders such as multiple sclerosis, neuromyelitis optica, Parkinson’s disease, and Alzheimer, in Europe alone. Nocturne expects that its OCT-based retinal image analysis will allow neurologists short-term diagnostic decisions, which will reduce the need for external costly MRIs. The ultimate goal is to offer specialized OCT devices in the future.

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a devastating immune-mediated disorder of the central nervous system. Since there is no cure available yet for MS, the primary therapeutic goal for MS patients is to slow down disability progression and to reduce relapses at early stages of the disease. Despite 19 available disease modifying treatments (DMTs), the large heterogeneity of the disease, further complicated by the high prevalance of comorbidities and multipharmacy, and the limited understanding of the working mechanisms DMT thereon results in a poor and variable treatment response in a real-world setting. The CLAIMS project is a public-private partnership aiming to address this and make precision medicine for MS patients a reality through data-driven prognosis and treatment advice, in order to better slow down disease progression and eventually conversion to progressive MS. We will develop, validate and submit for regulatory approval a companion diagnostic platform, which offers the MS care team a holistic view of the patient through the visualization of the clinical and subclinical biomarkers and the prediction of the expected disease trajectory under different treatments. For biomarker extraction and treatment prediction, state-of-the-art technologies that allow a reliable and scalable implementation across the world will be used. We believe this platform will initiate the paradigm shift from a trial-and-error, experienced-based treatment of MS patients to a first-time-right, value-based holistic treatment management, and will, hence, improve patient outcomes at a lower total cost of care, enhance patient experience and improve the well-being of the care team.

Nocturne GmbH, founded in 2018, is a spin-off from the Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Germany developing software solutions to efficiently process retina image data for neurological applications at scale across devices using advanced AI-based analysis. The innovative and unique technology developed tackles one the current major challenges in healthcare, the rapidly increasing burden of brain diseases. With the increase of life expectancy and aging population neurological disorders are the leading cause of disability and the second leading cause of death worldwide. The greatest unmet needs are better, faster and more cost-effective diagnostic and monitoring tools that could be widely available and have the potential to detect these diseases at the earliest stage in order to delay disability and provide each patient with a personalized treatment. To address this the team of Nocturne identified two major opportunities, the use of the retina as a window to the brain, and an already established on the market hardware imaging technology, cost-effective, widely available with no burden for the patient that can capture retinal images in less than 5 minutes. With its product, Nocturne addresses customers in pharmaceutical research, academia, and clinical care. In Germany alone, more than 1 million patients suffer from relevant diseases like Multiple Sclerosis, Parkinson’s disease, and others. We estimate the annual market volume in Germany alone at 350 million€, in Europe at 2 billion€. At market entry, Nocturne product is a CE-certified local installable web service, which accepts data from standard retinal imaging devices. The data are then analyzed with Nocturne’s technology, and a report is generated for the physician. The pricing is based on a pay-per-analysis, a model commonly used, for example, in radiology. Our focus is by removing the technical barriers and by providing unique insights into the diseases to enable better disease management and patient care.