Elon Musk's Neuralink recieved FDA approval for human trials, according to a May 25 tweet.
It's been a long road for the company, which aims to address spinal cord injuries with a brain implant.
"I think we have a chance with Neuralink to restore full-body functionality to someone who has a spinal cord injury," Mr. Musk told The Wall Street Journal in 2021.
Neuralink hasn't opened recruitment for clinical trials yet, but details are expected soon, the company said.
Despite its anticipation, Neuralink has faced past scrutiny. In February, it was under investigation over allegations it unsafely packaged and transported materials with infectious pathogens at research facilities at the University of California Davis.
The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine on May 26 also shared a statement expressing safety concerns surrounding Neuralink.
"It is important to remember that such FDA approval is not an acquittal of Neuralink’s well-documented track record of animal cruelty and sloppy scientific studies," the statement said. "The approval is also not a guarantee that a Neuralink device will someday be commercially available as a significant number of medical devices that begin clinical trials never reach the market."
Neuralink is also behind Synchron, a competing brain implant company which began clinical trials in 2022.