Shares in PainChek Ltd (ASX: PCK) are gaining today after news the company has received regulatory clearances for its app, PainChek Infant. At the time of writing, the PainChek share price is up 6.15%, with shares in the company swapping hands for 6.9 cents apiece.
As a result of the clearances, PainChek can market its pain sensing app for babies in Australia, Europe, the United Kingdom, Canada, Singapore, and New Zealand.
PainChek also announced its successful Infant Face-Only study is being peer-reviewed for publication. The study determined the app could successfully analyse a baby's facial expressions and evaluate if they're in pain.
Let's take a closer look at the latest news from Painchek.
PainChek Infant
Painchek has announced that it's received a number of regulatory approvals needed market its PainChek Infant app.
The company now plans to launch its infant app in a number of countries. It will focus particularly on the hospital and home care markets.
PainChek says that its app can help healthcare professionals, parents, and carers to evaluate if a non-verbal child is in pain. Additionally, the app will help gauge how much pain the child is in.
According to PainChek, there are around 400 million pre-verbal children globally. Moreover, one quarter is born to first-time parents. Furthermore, PainChek stated this gives it a large market entry point.
The company also said that, while clinicians have access to paper-based pain measuring tools for infants, they are rarely used. Additionally, it claimed that high levels of exposure to pained infants can sometimes lead to medical professionals dismissing babies' pain signals.
PainChek plans to continue expanding its app's abilities. Currently, it is working to broaden the age range of children whose pain can be assessed. It will do so by conducting further research and clinical studies. It is also currently conducting a study at Melbourne's Royal Children's Hospital.
PainChek already has an app available that uses facial expressions to sense pain in non-verbal adults.
Commentary from management
PainChek's CEO Philip Daffas commented on the PainChek Infant app's approval, saying:
We're delighted to achieve this regulatory milestone ahead of schedule and continue to expand PainChek's global markets. The PainChek Infant App is unique in that it completes a microfacial analysis through a 3 second video assessment and provides the carer with an instant result in relation to the infant's pain severity level…
Having established the initial PainChek Adult App and the business model in aged care, this broad portfolio of offerings provides the foundation for our global market entry into the larger home care and the hospital markets.
PainChek share price snapshot
The PainChek share price needs the good news as it battles a tough 2021 on the ASX.
Currently, the PainChek share price is down 12.5% year to date. It's also fallen 56% since this time last year.
The company has a market capitalisation of around $73 million, with approximately 1.1 billion shares outstanding.
