ARTICLE SUMMARY:
Fourteen years after its founding, Relievant is still in the relatively early stages of launching a potentially disruptive treatment for a certain kind of chronic lower back pain. The company appears to be gaining ground with practitioners, despite, or perhaps because of, the pandemic. This fall the company is poised to make headway on reimbursement. Its investors, however, still face an uphill battle to profitability.
Non-specific or axial chronic lower back pain (CLBP) is the third most burdensome condition affecting Americans, following ischemic heart disease and COPD, and it remains a challenge to treat, with success rates generally hovering at less than 30%. While some causes of CLBP are clearly defined, for the most part, its physiology is poorly understood and therefore differentiation of pain generators and treatment breakthroughs that offer pain relief has been frustratingly limited.
