Aclarion

Aclarion, founded in 2014 and based in Broomfield, Colorado, is a commercial-stage diagnostics company focused on the chronic low back pain market. The company's core innovation is the NOCISCAN platform, which applies MR spectroscopy to detect specific pain-associated biomarkers (lactate and pH) within intervertebral discs, providing a NOCI+/NOCI- score for each disc. This objective data is designed to help physicians pinpoint the source of pain more accurately than structural imaging alone, potentially leading to better-targeted treatments and improved surgical outcomes. Aclarion operates on a SaaS model, commercializing its evidence-supported technology to spine specialists and surgical centers.

SaaS platform utilizing magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) to non-invasively measure biochemical biomarkers (lactate and pH) in spinal discs to identify painful discs.

Aclarion's NOCISCAN is first-to-market with an MRS-based diagnostic for discogenic pain. Primary competition comes from the entrenched standard of care: subjective clinical assessment combined with structural MRI, and the invasive diagnostic gold standard, provocative discography. Other potential competitors could emerge from companies developing alternative functional imaging, biomarker assays, or AI-based analysis of conventional imaging, but NOCISCAN currently occupies a unique niche.