The anti-migraine headband from Cefaly Technology is now being exported to the US and Saudi Arabia, following an economic mission led by AWEX.

Cefaly® is the world´s first external neurostimulation device for treating and preventing migraines and headaches. It is a Walloon technological innovation that is the result of research conducted in 2009 by the Liège-based company Cefaly Technology (formerly Stx-Med). Since then, the device, which is entirely produced in Wallonia, has been entering more and more markets.

Following its introduction under the direction of AWEX at the Arab Health Exhibition in Dubai where some initial contact was made, the Liège-based SME signed a EUR 1 million contract with Al Awour Company in the context of the latest princely economic mission to Saudi Arabia. The company is active in medical distribution, especially as the Saudi market leader in auditory prostheses, with sales of EUR 30 million.

"Signing this contract is very important to our company, which has now secured its place in one of the largest markets in the Middle East”, explain Dr Pierre Rigaux and Dr Pierre-Yves Muller, the two founders of Cefaly Technology. “It confirms the increasing interest in our product, Cefaly, which is a non-invasive and non-drug migraine treatment. The marketing licence granted last month by the FDA in the US has further reinforced international credibility and was an important factor in decision-making by our Saudi partner", add the company´s founders.

The FDA licence, whose criteria are some of the strictest in the world, not only acknowledges the quality and efficacy of the device, but also opens it up almost exclusively to the American market. To be licensed by the FDA, a competing product should demonstrate that it is substantially equal to Cefaly in terms of method and technical specifications and would therefore breach the US patent granted to the company.

The US market is one of the world´s largest in the sector. With Cefaly, on which over 600 articles have been written since it was released at the World Congress in Philadelphia, the company´s ambition is to sell at least some 3,000 devices a month in the next three years. That represents annual sales of more than USDten million.