Myocene signs contract with OGC Nice for muscle fatigue measurement technology

Company continues expansion in French market with new contract, confirming interest from world of professional and top-level sport in currently unrivalled on-field technology

OGC Nice to use Myocene’s cutting-edge device to monitor and improve player performance

Liège, Belgium, November 21, 2023 – Myocene, the company developing a cutting-edge device for measuring muscle fatigue[1], today announces that it has signed a contract to supply its patented technology to the French professional football club OGC Nice. The financial terms of the agreement have not been disclosed.

The top-flight club in France’s Ligue 1 will use Myocene’s technology during training sessions and matches to optimize players’ performance. Muscle fatigue measurements will be taken each week throughout the season to assess players’ recovery levels, and their general condition after each match. The team’s fitness coaches can then use this information to decide when players are ready to return to training ahead of upcoming matches. Similarly, the club intends to use the device to monitor players recovering from injuries and determine whether they are able to return to high-intensity training.

“We chose Myocene’s device as a tool that allows us to reliably assess the players’ ‘freshness’ and recovery levels,” explained Laurent Bessiere, performance director at OGC Nice.

Myocene’s innovative technology can calculate an individual’s exact muscle fatigue index in just two minutes. It uses an algorithm designed to analyze the highly accurate measurements obtained by the combination of a specific sensor and the high precision control of muscle contraction. Suitable for use both in the training room and on the pitch, this helps elite sportspeople manage their fatigue levels and improve their performance. It is also useful in shaping their technical training plans by adapting training sessions and rest periods as necessary.

“We’re delighted to have secured this partnership with OGC Nice. This contract confirms that our unique device is perfectly in line with market requirements and responds to a growing demand within the elite sporting world,” said Jean-Yves Mignolet, CEO at Myocene. “Offering a reliable, objective tool that goes beyond the athlete’s perception of fatigue and gives a precise, scientific indication of muscle fitness and recovery is a radical improvement in the approach to physical preparation.”

This new contract with OGC Nice is the latest in a series signed with elite sports clubs, including French handball clubs Saint-Raphaël Var Handball (SRVHB) and US Ivry, and the French and Portuguese football clubs RC Strasbourg and Sporting Clube de Braga. The company also has contracts in place with French training and research centers that specialize in physical conditioning, such as the Centre d’Expertise de la Performance (CEP) Cometti in Dijon and the BeScored Institute in Valbonne. 

This latest commercial success confirms that there is a real appetite for Myocene’s unique pitchside technology in the world of elite and professional sport. Thanks to Myocene, sports professionals are now able to explore new avenues in improving their performance, based on accurate, objective and quantifiable muscle fatigue measurements rather than on performance-based indicators or subjective assessments, such as the feeling of fatigue, as has usually been the case until now.

Myocene’s pitchside technology has been validated by Prof Guillaume Millet, a sports physiologist at the Jean Monnet University in Saint-Etienne, France. It is also used regularly in scientific research at many universities, such as Poitiers, Montpellier, Burgundy and Savoie Mont-Blanc in France, the School of Health Sciences in Valais, Switzerland (HES-SO), the Ruhr University Bochum in Germany and the University of Salzburg in Austria. Thanks to the equipment’s user-friendly interface and high precision measurements, researchers can conduct studies involving large cohorts of subjects.

In the coming months, Myocene expects to sign many more new contracts with elite European sports clubs – including those in football, field hockey, basketball, volleyball and rugby – which pride themselves on achieving the very highest quality standards. The company is also targeting semi-professional sports clubs, fitness centers and sports associations, to support the sports world in implementing its muscle fatigue measurement technology as an integral part of training routines across the sporting spectrum, both in Europe and the US.

About Myocene

Myocene is a medical technology company developing an innovative device for measuring muscle fatigue. Using patented algorithms, it delivers fast, accurate, objective and quantifiable measurements. In just two minutes, the Myocene device can calculate an individual’s muscle fatigue index using a combination of muscle electrostimulation and force sensors.

The technology, which has already been tested on almost one thousand sportspeople, is aimed at the entire professional and semi-professional sports market and meets an important demand in this area by providing an objective assessment of muscle fatigue levels, a key parameter in improving athletic performance. The device also has potential applications in the medical field, such as in occupational medicine or the treatment of muscular disorders.

Myocene’s technology has been validated by Prof Guillaume Millet, a sports physiologist at the Jean Monnet University in Saint-Etienne in France.

The company was founded in 2020 in Liège, Belgium, and currently has eight members of staff. In 2023, it raised €2 million ($2.2M) in its third seed funding round, bringing the total funding raised by the company to €3.3 million ($3.6M).

www.myocene.com

[1] Muscle fatigue is characterized by a reduction in all physical capabilities of the muscles (strength, power, speed of muscle contraction, etc.). It is a key parameter in assessing sporting performance.