Markets to Watch in 2025: Neuromodulation

Neuromodulation has long been a cornerstone of innovation in medical technology, lauded for the potential to offer new solutions for patients living with chronic conditions.

Through 2024, this was one of medtech's hottest markets, and we expect nothing but continued momentum in 2025.

The market was historically dominated by spinal cord stimulation (SCS) and deep brain stimulation (DBS). However, as our understanding of the relationship between the nervous system and chronic diseases deepens, the market is experiencing diversification into new clinical indications.

Let’s delve into the history of neuromodulation, the evolving landscape, the numbers driving its growth, and the opportunities that lie ahead.

Foundations of Neuromodulation

Neuromodulation began with groundbreaking advancements in SCS and DBS, technologies that continue to dominate the market.

• Spinal Cord Stimulation (SCS): Introduced in the 1960s, SCS provides electrical stimulation to the spinal cord to disrupt pain signals. It remains a gold standard for the 1.5+ billion people worldwide managing chronic pain, particularly in patients with failed back surgery syndrome and complex regional pain syndrome.
• Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS): Since the 1990s, DBS has been explored for the treatment of essential tremor and Parkinson’s disease. In 2002, DBS was approved by FDA for the treatment of Parkinson’s disease. By delivering targeted electrical pulses to specific brain regions, DBS alleviates symptoms like tremors and rigidity, offering improved quality of life for patients with Parkinson’s and other neurological conditions like essential tremor and dystonia.

These legacy markets established the feasibility and efficacy of neuromodulation and paved the way for broader applications.

New Frontiers in Neuromodulation

Today, neuromodulation is moving beyond pain and movement disorders to address an expanding range of chronic conditions. This diversification reflects growing recognition of the nervous system’s role in managing systemic diseases.

Emerging applications include:

• Vagus Nerve Stimulation (VNS): Originally developed for epilepsy and depression, VNS is now being explored for inflammatory diseases like rheumatoid arthritis and Crohn’s disease, leveraging its ability to modulate immune responses.
• Sacral Neuromodulation (SNM): Used to treat overactive bladder (OAB) and fecal incontinence. SNM represents a growing segment as demand for non-pharmacologic solutions to pelvic floor disorders rises.
• Peripheral Nerve Stimulation (PNS): Focused on localized pain management, PNS has potential applications in post-surgical recovery and conditions like migraines.

This expansion is driven by technological advances, including miniaturized implants, closed-loop systems, and AI-powered algorithms that optimize and personalize therapy delivery.

So where are we today in this market?

Let’s dive into The Numbers.

The Numbers

In 2024, LSI's Market Intelligence team estimated the neuromodulation market reached $5.995B in total product sales.

96% of this market is attributable to implantable devices, with 4% of sales attributable to repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (rTMS) market (covered in an earlier edition of The Numbers).

As of today, total neuromodulation device sales are attributable to legacy segments of this market - SCS and DBS.

SCS is still the largest segment of this market. With an estimated $2.5B in product sales last year, the SCS market is poised to see moderate growth over the next five years, fueled by the massive population of patients requiring alternatives to pharmaceuticals for chronic pain management.

The second legacy market, DBS, was surpassed in 2021 by the SNS market. While still reaching an estimated $1.7B in product sales in 2024, the market is limited by several factors pertaining to smaller patient populations and sophistication of the procedure.

As previously stated, SNS has surpassed DBS in terms of total product sales. With the global prevalence of urinary incontinence affecting over 400 million people, the market for these devices has seen significant growth in recent years.

According to our latest projections, the SNS devices market is growing at a CAGR of 6.6% from 2024 to 2029 and is project to surpass SCS as the largest of the neuromodulation devices market in the next decade.

The final major market for neuromodulation is VNS. While it is a smaller subsegment of the neuromodulation market, VNS product sales are expected to outpace both DBS and SCS in YoY growth. Currently valued at around a half billion dollars ($522M in 2024), the market is on pace to break $1B in the 2030s.

Underlying all of this market growth is a steady uptick in procedure volumes. According to LSI’s Global Surgical Procedure Volumes (SPV) database, in 2024 an estimated 4.1 million neuromodulation procedures were performed worldwide.

Worth noting that of these, rTMS procedures contributed nearly 50% of all cases.

What stands out most to our analysts is the growth in market size. Comparing market growth to procedure volume growth from 2024 to 2029, we see the market is projected to increase at a CAGR of 4.9%, while procedures increase at a CAGR of 3.2%.

This sizable discrepancy between market and procedure growth is attributable to technological advancement that is allowing neuromodulation devices to continue to command premium prices.

What’s Driving Growth in Neuromodulation?

Several factors are propelling the expansion of the neuromodulation market:

• Evolving Science: Advances in neuroscience are uncovering the nervous system’s role in regulating immunity, metabolism, and emotional well-being, driving innovation in therapeutic targets.
• Non-Invasive Technologies: Devices like taVNS and wearable stimulators lower barriers to adoption, making neuromodulation accessible to more patients.
• Personalized Medicine: AI and data analytics enable tailored treatments, ensuring optimal outcomes for diverse patient populations.
• Healthcare Cost Pressures: With rising demand for cost-effective solutions, neuromodulation reduces reliance on drugs and hospital-based interventions.
• Desire to Reduce Chronic Pharmaceutical Usage: Many patients seek alternatives to long-term drug regimens due to concerns about side effects, dependency, or diminishing efficacy. Neuromodulation offers a compelling non-pharmacologic solution, aligning with this preference while addressing underlying conditions.

Opportunities in Chronic Condition Management

The diversification of neuromodulation opens opportunities to address some of the most challenging chronic conditions:

1. Chronic Pain: As the opioid crisis continues, neuromodulation offers a critical non-opioid alternative, with new technologies like dorsal root ganglion (DRG) stimulation targeting previously underserved pain conditions.
2. Neurological Disorders: From Alzheimer’s to multiple sclerosis, neuromodulation is being investigated for its ability to modify disease progression or manage debilitating symptoms.
3. Mental Health: With growing demand for alternative treatments for depression, anxiety, and PTSD, technologies like DBS and taVNS are expanding the therapeutic arsenal for mental health.
4. Cardiovascular and Metabolic Conditions: Innovations in baroreflex activation therapy and gastric nerve stimulation point to new frontiers in managing hypertension, heart failure, and obesity.

These applications reflect a fundamental shift in how chronic diseases are treated, moving from symptom suppression to targeted, systems-based therapies.

Companies to Watch

In our earlier rTMS edition of The Numbers, we focused on two companies driving the revolution in neuromdulation:

• Inner Cosmos, pioneering a new approach to TMS for treatment-resistant depression with an implantable "digital pill."
• Sinaptica Therapeutics, applying closed-loop TMS technology to treat and significantly slow Alzheimer’s progression.

In 2024, there were multiple companies that made waves in neuromodulation, including LSI Alumni INBRAIN Neuroelectronics and Amber Therapeutics .

INBRAIN Neuroelectronics closed a $50 million Series B financing round in 2024, led by imec.xpand and new investors including EIC Fund, Fond ICO Next Tech, CDTI-Innvierte, and AVAN?SA, alongside returning investors Asabys Partners, Aliath Bioventures, and Vsquared Ventures.

INBRAIN’s technology harnesses the unique properties of graphene, a Nobel Prize-winning material recognized for its strength, flexibility, and conductivity. The company’s ultra-thin implant—just 10 micrometers thick, thinner than a human hair—safely decodes and modulates neural signals with remarkable precision, setting a new standard in the field of precision neurology.

In addition to the Series B funding, INBRAIN secured further support from Merck KGaA to advance clinical development within Merck’s key therapeutic areas.

INBRAIN's CEO Carolina Aguilar presented at LSI USA to explain how "dimensional materials like graphene represent that breakthrough opportunity in Euro technology." According to her, the platform applications here will enable them to serve a breadth of patients as they progress.

There's a lot of applications that we can develop, and this is what we're doing. We want to disrupt the low density market and start from where it exists today, the $1.7 billion opportunity with currently reimbursement codes, and then keep on going towards the larger BCI market being developed by players like Neuralink and Precision Neuroscience . - Carolina Aguilar , CEO and Co-Founder, INBRAIN

INBRAIN's full presentation on Graphene Core Technology for the Brain is available on LSI's website.

From its origins in SCS and DBS, neuromodulation has evolved into a versatile and dynamic field, offering solutions for an ever-growing list of chronic conditions. By targeting the nervous system’s critical role in health and disease, neuromodulation is not only managing symptoms but also fundamentally improving quality of life.

As research continues and technologies advance, the opportunities for neuromodulation will only expand, bringing hope to millions of patients worldwide. Whether addressing chronic pain, movement disorders, or mental health challenges, neuromodulation is poised to play a transformative role in the future of healthcare.

More From LSI Market Intelligence

• Want to connect with innovators building the future of neuromodulation (and investors in these companies, like New Enterprise Associates (NEA), F-Prime Capital, Intuitive Ventures, Oxford Science Enterprises and more)? They will be at LSI USA '25 in Dana Point on March 17-21, 2025. Secure your spot today while space is available.
• We just released new, indication-specific package pricing for our Market Intelligence Platform. Looking for trusted, comprehensive market intel on Neuromodulation, Ortho, Cardio, or another area? Get in touch today.

Until next week,

Henry Peck and Nick Talamantes

LSI Market Intelligence Platform

All data in this article is sourced from LSI's Market Intelligence Team