The brain implant company Neuralink, founded by Elon Musk among others, previously tested implants in pigs and monkeys. Now it has approval for human trials
Elon Musk’s brain-computer interface startup, Neuralink, recently announced that it had received approval from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to conduct its first in-human clinical study. The company highlighted the milestone in a post on its official Twitter account.
As noted by Neuralink, the FDA permission is the culmination of the work that the company’s employees have done over the past years. The startup also noted that the first in-human clinical study is a pivotal step towards Neuralink’s goal of helping numerous people.
Neuralink, however, also clarified that recruitment for the clinical trials is not open yet.
“We are excited to share that we have received the FDA’s approval to launch our first-in-human clinical study! This is the result of incredible work by the Neuralink team in close collaboration with the FDA and represents an important first step that will one day allow our technology to help many people. Recruitment is not yet open for our clinical trial. We’ll announce more information on this soon!” Neuralink noted on its Twitter post.
Yet the company, founded in 2016, only sought FDA approval in early 2022 – and the agency rejected the application, seven current and former employees told Reuters in March.