[Edaily Marketin Song Seung-Hyeon Reporter] The brain produces waste products as it functions. The “glymphatic system” is the pathway that flushes these waste products out through cerebrospinal fluid circulation, and it operates primarily during deep sleep. If this function declines due to stress or illness, waste products accumulate in the brain, leading to degenerative brain diseases. Sonocare Lab is a company developing medical devices that use ultrasound to push these waste products out from the outside.

According to the venture capital (VC) industry on the 30th, Bluepoint Partners, a deep-tech accelerator (AC), has made a seed investment in Sonocare Lab. The investment amount and the company’s valuation were not disclosed. Bluepoint is an accelerator based in Daejeon and Seoul that invests in technology-based early-stage companies.

Park Su-yong, a director at Bluepoint who led the investment, explained, “Central nervous system (CNS) disorders, including Alzheimer’s, remain an area with significant unmet medical needs—one that requires new therapeutic approaches beyond drug therapy.” He added, “This team possesses differentiated technology that non-invasively regulates the brain’s waste removal mechanism, built on their long-standing expertise in developing ultrasound medical devices.”

Sonocare Lab was founded by Professor Park Jin-hyung of the Department of Global Biomedical Engineering at Sungkyunkwan University. The technology originated from the project titled “Brain Cleaner: Ultrasonic Brain Sweeper for Enhancing the Waste Removal Function of the Glial-Patic System,” which was selected for the Samsung Future Technology Promotion Program in 2022. CEO Park earned a Ph.D. in biomedical engineering with a focus on ultrasound technology from the University of Southern California (USC) and was responsible for the development and commercialization of ultrasound systems at the Siemens Ultrasound Research Institute in Korea and at Philips in the U.S. He decided to start the company to combine the laboratory’s core technology with the commercialization experience he gained at global corporations.

There have been previous attempts to intervene in the glymphatic system. These methods—such as using massage to increase circulation or administering drugs to widen lymphatic vessels—were either inefficient or carried risks. The core technology, the “Acoustic Brain Sweeper,” directs low-intensity focused transcranial ultrasound at areas where waste accumulates and moves the beam in a specific direction to promote cerebrospinal fluid circulation. This method activates the drainage function by applying physical stimulation to the pathways through which waste products are expelled. The sound pressure used is comparable to that of ultrasound imaging devices found in hospitals. The company aims to develop an array-type device that operates automatically when attached to the head. Starting with Alzheimer’s disease, the company envisions expanding its applications to degenerative brain disorders such as Parkinson’s disease and the removal of toxic substances following a cerebral hemorrhage.

Alzheimer’s treatment has reached a turning point with the emergence of antibody therapies that target amyloid beta, such as lecanemab and donanemab. “Lecembi,” which contains lecanemab, was launched in South Korea in November 2024, and approximately 3,000 patients received the treatment each month last year. Since it is not covered by national health insurance, the annual cost to patients runs into the tens of millions of won. "Kisunra," which contains donanemab, has been approved in the U.S. and Japan, but its entry into the South Korean market has been delayed due to requirements for a bridging clinical trial involving Korean patients. IQVIA projects that the global Alzheimer’s treatment market will grow from $4.21 billion in 2022 to $30.8 billion by 2033.

It is worth noting that Sonocare Lab did not position itself as a competitor to this antibody therapy. The company believed that treatment efficacy would only improve if it addressed the process by which waste products, broken down by the drug, are actually removed from the brain. Therefore, it designed its device as a “companion device” to be used alongside the antibody therapy. In essence, the company chose to enhance the drug’s efficiency rather than replace it.

In South Korea, NeuroSonar is another company using focused ultrasound to treat brain disorders. NeuroSonar’s focused ultrasound stimulation system has been designated as an “innovative medical device” by the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety. Unlike companies that target the treatment itself, Sonocare Lab focuses on the pathway through which waste products are eliminated. However, the advantage of being non-invasive also creates the burden of having to prove its effectiveness with concrete data. Since clinical data from human trials and regulatory approval are still pending, it will take time to reach commercialization.

According to estimates by the National Dementia Center, the number of dementia patients aged 65 and older in South Korea exceeded 1 million last year and is projected to surpass 3 million by 2050. Park Jin-hyung, CEO of Sonocare Lab, stated, “Our goal is to complement the shift in Alzheimer’s treatment—which began with antibody therapies—by leveraging the brain’s inherent waste removal system.” He added, “We plan to first enter the market for medical devices used in conjunction with antibody therapies and, in the long term, develop this into a platform that can be used in the treatment of various central nervous system disorders.”