Irvine is HQ for heart-valve warriors
December 27th, 2007, 6:09 am · Post a Comment · posted by Colin Stewart
“INSIDE INNOVATION” COLUMN
Irvine is the center of the universe for patients with weak heart valves.
To help those patients, two local companies – Edwards Lifesciences and CoreValve – have developed techniques for implanting aortic valves without major surgery.
The companies are competing to win the favor of regulators and then of doctors, first in Europe and then the United States.
The beneficiaries will be about 120,000 patients a year worldwide who need new aortic valves, typically because of calcium buildup, but are too frail or sick for major heart surgery.
Both companies’ devices use a catheter to replace a failing valve with one made of animal tissue.
Neither company has won approval to sell its latest products in the United States. So far the battlefields are in Europe. …
