Neuralink has announced that it has received US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval to begin its first clinical study on humans.
This technology is expected to have the potential to restore motor, sensory, and visual function to patients, as well as help in the treatment of neurological disorders.
“We are excited to share that we have received the FDA’s approval to launch our first-in-human clinical study,” Neuralink tweeted on Thursday.
“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,” it added.
On receiving the FDA approval, Musk also tweeted to congratulate the Neuralink team.
The company has said that the recruitment for the clinical trial is not open yet, and more information will be forthcoming soon.
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…
— Neuralink (@neuralink) May 25, 2023
In March 2023, the FDA rejected the company’s bid to implant a chip in a human brain over safety risks.
Back in December, Musk had claimed Neuralink’s device was ready for human trials and he was expecting to do so in about six months after the company had experimented with it on pigs and monkeys.
Musk’s Neuralink would not be the first to implant a brain-computer interface into humans.
The US-based Synchron is an endovascular brain-computer (BCI) interface company that competes with Neuralink, which also aims to enable paralyzed people to use computers and phones through their brain activities alone.
Synchron launched human trials on six severely paralyzed patients in the US to enable them to control digital devices hands-free, using just thoughts in May 2022.
