The University Health Network (UHN) in Canada has announced that Toronto Western Hospital will become the first site outside the United States to conduct a trial of a device developed by Elon Musk's Neuralink.

UHN CEO Kevin Smith said, "We are extremely proud to be at the forefront of this research advance in neurosurgery," and also noted that the network will be the "first and exclusive site" for the trial in Canada, without specifying a start date.

On Wednesday, Neuralink confirmed it had received approval from Canadian regulators to launch clinical trials for its chip in Canada.

The company wrote on X, also owned by Musk: "Health Canada has approved the launch of our first clinical trial in Canada. Enrollment is now open."

Neuralink added that it is seeking patients with quadriplegia due to amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) or spinal cord injury.

Health Canada did not immediately comment.

Over the past months, Neuralink has been recruiting patients in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Canada through registration links on its website.

Neuralink's First Human Device

Other companies in this field, such as Synchron Inc., are also recruiting patients for future trials.

Neuralink's first product aims to enable patients to control external devices, such as computers, using their thoughts.

The company is also working on treatments for other conditions such as blindness, but this project is still in its early stages. Musk has stated that Neuralink may work with healthy patients to enhance functions like memory improvement in the distant future.

Neuralink's first human device was implanted in a patient named Noland Arbaugh earlier this year at the Barrow Neurological Institute in Phoenix.

This content is from Asharq Business with Bloomberg.