World Stroke Day 2025: Every Minute Counts in Advancing Stroke Care

Every two seconds, someone in the world experiences a stroke.

According to the World Stroke Organization’s 2025 Global Stroke Fact Sheet, nearly 12 million people experience a new stroke each year, and 94 million are currently living with its effects.

The annual global cost of stroke is over $890 billion — about 0.66% of global GDP — based primarily on the 2021 Global Burden of Disease (GBD) estimates. This figure includes medical care, rehabilitation, long-term support and lost productivity. Low- and middle-income countries accounted for almost 90% of stroke deaths and disability.

Without stronger prevention and early-detection efforts, the global incidence of stroke may rise by nearly 50% by 2050. Not only that, but stroke risk is also closely tied to chronic conditions such as hypertension, diabetes, obesity, atrial fibrillation and cardiovascular disease, conditions which also tend to be more pronounced in rural regions.

The 2025 World Stroke Day theme, “Every Minute Counts: #ActFAST,” hopes to reinforce earlier recognition of stroke symptoms and faster intervention to preserve brain function and independence.

In our blog, we spotlight some of the clinical programs and technology-based approaches that are under evaluation to improve outcomes.

Reimagining Acute Stroke Treatment: World Stroke Congress Features

At the World Stroke Congress 2025 in Barcelona, several programs are highlighting advances that may extend or optimize the critical treatment window.

Revalesio’s RNS60, an oxygen-enriched saline with anti-inflammatory and mitochondrial-supportive properties, was associated with improved functional outcomes and reduced tissue loss in new findings from the Phase II RESCUE analysis when used alongside endovascular thrombectomy (EVT). The therapy — now advancing toward Phase III — has received FDA Fast Track designation for acute ischemic stroke.

Prolong Pharmaceuticals presented findings from the Phase I/II HEMERA-1 study of PP-007 (Sanguinate), a PEGylated carboxyhemoglobin bovine formulation that enhances oxygen delivery to ischemic brain tissue. In the study, PP-007 produced a 20% absolute increase in functional independence and lower mortality versus thrombectomy alone. A global pivotal study, HEMERA-2, is being prepared following FDA feedback.

Basking Biosciences’ BB-031, a reversible RNA aptamer targeting von Willebrand factor (vWF), showed encouraging safety and early efficacy signals in Phase II RAISE findings. Combined with its rapid-acting reversal agent BB-025, the therapy is being evaluated as an option for patients currently considered ineligible for thrombolysis due to bleeding risk.

Also featured was Lumosa Therapeutics’ LT3001 (odatroltide), which is a dual-mechanism small molecule under development for acute ischemic stroke. The company reported favorable safety and signals of functional improvement in a Phase IIb trial involving patients treated up to 24 hours after stroke onset. The program is moving toward Phase III evaluation across Asia, Europe and the US.

Another Fast Track candidate, Silver Creek Pharmaceuticals’ scp776, uses Silver Creek’s Smart Growth Factor approach to deliver IGF-1 selectively to injured brain tissue. The Phase II ARPEGGIO trial is assessing whether scp776 can preserve viable cells during ischemic injury by inhibiting apoptosis, a distinct biologic strategy under evaluation within the neuroprotective pipeline.

XTALKS WEBINAR: Enhancing Cardiometabolic Trials with Configurable eCOA and Digital Health Technologies

Live and On-Demand: Friday, November 21, 2025, at 11am EST (5pm CET/EU-Central)

Register for this free webinar to learn how to combine configurable eCOA software with integrated digital health technologies (DHTs) to enable faster study development and robust real-world data collection.

Timely Access to Stroke Care and Prevention

Timely access to care remains a major limitation. In the US, roughly one in five adults lives more than an hour from a center that can perform thrombectomy.

To help address some of this delay, Remedy Robotics and Mission Thrombectomy announced a partnership to deploy the N1 telerobotic system, intended to support access to mechanical thrombectomy in hospitals that lack on-site neuro-interventional expertise, particularly in underserved regions.

Diagnostic accuracy and workflow speed are also being targeted. Qure.ai’s FDA-cleared qER-CTA solution is designed to assist emergency teams by automatically analyzing CT angiography for large-vessel occlusions and facilitating triage and specialist notification. RapidAI’s Lumina 3D, named to TIME’s Best Inventions of 2025, automatically generates near real-time 3D reconstructions from computed tomography angiography (CTA) to support faster, more consistent treatment planning.

Stroke recovery and prevention are also increasingly viewed as a continuum. In Canada, the Heart & Stroke Foundation, CIHR-ICRH and Brain Canada announced $5 million over five years for Cardiac Arrest Team Grants to improve prediction, emergency response and neuro-rehabilitation.

Further, in cardiac technology, Adagio Medical’s cryoablation system for ventricular tachycardia represents another link between cardiovascular and neurological health. The platform aims to stabilize heart rhythms that can trigger embolic stroke.

And in rehabilitation news, Helius Medical Technologies aims to expand use of its Portable Neuromodulation Stimulator (PoNS) device for gait and balance deficits in chronic stroke. In company-reported trials, PoNS combined with physical therapy improved walking ability and maintained gains for 12 weeks post-treatment.

These efforts tell us that stroke care is moving on two tracks at once: efforts to improve timely care and rehabilitation, and evaluation of new approaches that aim to reduce tissue injury or widen treatment windows.

If you want your company to be featured on Xtalks.com, please email [email protected].