A cooperation with neurosurgeons from Munich is intended to bring Germany into the world's leading group in terms of technology. Clemens Fischer wants to invest more than 100 million euros.
Clemens Fischer wants to develop the world's leading generation of brain-computer interfaces (BCI) by 2030 and is planning investments of more than 100 million euros.
His company has developed a brain chip that rests on the surface of the brain instead of penetrating the brain tissue.
Fischer is cooperating with neurosurgeon Bernhard Meyer from the Technical University of Munich Hospital, who wants to make the clinic the leading European location for brain-computer interfaces.
Research on brain-computer interfaces is funded by the European Union, the Federal Ministry of Research, the German Research Foundation, industrial partners and Fischer's company.
Munich. He has built a multi-million dollar pharmaceutical company with over-the-counter medications such as the intestinal drug Kijimea. Now Clemens Fischer, 51, wants to be at the forefront of the brain chip market. A subsidiary of its Futrue group of companies has developed a brain-computer interface (BCI) that will be implanted in a paralyzed patient later this year.
“I am convinced that the truly groundbreaking innovations in the health sector will no longer come from pharmaceutical laboratories, but from the tech laboratories of the world,” says entrepreneur Fischer. His goal is to create the world's leading generation of BCIs by 2030. Fischer wants to invest more than 100 million euros in the development. Tech billionaire Elon Musk's company Neuralink, which is worth billions, is considered the leader in this area.
BCIs measure – to put it simply – electrical or magnetic activity of brain cells (neurons) and send signals to a computer. It converts them into concrete control commands so that people can operate a cursor on the screen or a robot arm or speak via computer.
Fischer cooperates with the team of neurosurgeon Bernhard Meyer from the Hospital of the Technical University of Munich (TUM). Meyer has headed the neurosurgery clinic and polyclinic at the TUM Clinic for two decades. The neurosurgeon also has big goals: By 2030, he wants to make the Munich clinic the number one hub for brain-computer interfaces in Europe.
Meyer has already implanted a permanent brain-computer interface in two patients - the product came from the US company Blackrock Neurotech. The next BCI that Meyer implants will now come from the development of Fischer's company Futrue Neurosciences: In contrast to the US implant, the German chip does not penetrate the brain tissue, but lies on the surface of the brain. On the chip's so-called array, which is about half as thin as a hair, there are 512 microelectrodes that are densely packed in a small space and each of which can be controlled.
Fischer sees this chip as having an advantage over Neuralink. Their BCI has 1024 electrodes that can read signals, but cannot stimulate to a comparable extent.
From the perspective of neurosurgeon Meyer, the Futrue product is a leader in so-called bidirectional systems. These offer the possibility of not only reading signals from the brain, but also “writing” signals, i.e. stimulating them. “Haptic signals can also be sent back to the brain, which is important for the precise control of robot arms, for example,” says 64-year-old Meyer.
According to Fischer, BCIs will also revolutionize pain therapy. “In ten or 20 years we will no longer treat chronic pain with drugs,” he is convinced.
Fischer, a doctor with an MBA (Master of Business Administration), is familiar with the field of pain therapy: one of his companies recently received the first approval for a cannabis drug that is used against so-called neuropathic pain. They arise from damage or dysfunction of the nervous system. Damaged nerves sometimes send incorrect electrical signals to the brain.
Fischer and neurosurgeon Meyer are currently working on two research projects: One is aimed at chronic pain patients. In the future, the brain-computer interface will ensure that chronic pain does not even reach people's awareness.
While acute pain sends important warning signals that something is wrong in the body, chronic pain has no function, according to neurosurgeon Meyer. “We want to try to use a brain-computer interface to ensure that neuronal activation patterns for chronic pain cannot arise,” he says.
The second project, in which the first implantation is due to take place soon, is aimed at quadriplegics, i.e. people who have a severe form of paraplegia in which all four limbs and the trunk are affected by a functional disorder or paralysis. This is usually caused by damage to the spinal cord in the cervical spine area. Here the BCI is intended to control prostheses or robot arms.
Marcello Ienca, Professor of Ethics in AI and Neuroscience at the TUM School of Medicine and Health, sees good chances that Europe can position itself well in global competition through research alliances like the one in Munich. "At a time when the technological world is dominated by the USA and China, this is extremely important in terms of science policy. Europe is already behind in AI, but is absolutely competitive in the areas of brain machine interfaces and neurotechnology," he says.
According to Ienca, Europe also has the advantage of a fundamental rights-oriented regulatory framework that focuses on the protection of individual rights and fair access to innovation. “Technologies such as brain-computer interfaces must not be subordinated primarily to state control interests, as in China, nor to the business interests of a few large companies, as in the USA,” says the expert.
BCI research in Munich is still at the basic research stage. It will still be years before a brain-computer interface is approved as a treatment option for patients. Neurosurgeon Meyer hopes to be able to start registration studies before 2030. Use in clinical routine could then take place between 2035 and 2040, “perhaps even a little earlier for pain implants,” he says.
The research is financed by third-party funds in the eight-figure range from the European Union, the Federal Ministry of Research and the German Research Foundation. Added to this are the contributions of various industrial partners and the millions from Fischer entrepreneurs.
The Futrue group of companies, which includes more than 20 companies, generated sales of almost 227 million euros in 2024, and the annual net profit after minorities was 3.8 million euros. The low value is due to the high research costs for the development of the cannabis drug, in which Fischer has invested several hundred million euros in recent years.
"Futrue is deliberately built in such a way that the annual profit is small. Our operating business now generates a result in the three-digit million range. We reinvest this money almost entirely in research, development and the associated personnel - predominantly in Germany," says the entrepreneur. After sales of 301 million euros last year, he is planning sales of around 500 million euros this year and an operating result before research expenditure of more than 100 million euros. The amount should largely be reinvested.
