Roxanne Yamaguchi Moster For Immediate Release [email protected] May 5, 1998 (310) 206-1960
UCLA HEART TRANSPLANT PROGRAM ANNOUNCES AGREEMENT WITH ABIOMED IN PREPARATION FOR HUMAN TRIALS OF ARTIFICIAL HEART
UCLA Medical Center's Heart Transplant Program announced on May 5 that it has reached a collaborative agreement to begin training its surgeons and staff to install a battery-powered artificial heart replacement device developed and manufactured by ABIOMED, Inc. It is expected that this will be the first internally implanted, battery powered artificial heart to undergo human trials as an alternative to transplantation.
UCLA expects that initial implantation of the artificial heart in patients will begin in the year 2000 by a team led by renowned cardiac surgeon Dr. Hillel Laks, director of the UCLA Heart and Lung Transplant Programs.
UCLA Medical Center, along with a select group of four other U.S. medical centers, will undertake readiness training for clinical implantation of the battery-powered heart replacement device after approval by the FDA.
The ABIOMED heart, now in an advanced stage of pre-clinical testing, began its base technology development in 1977. Certain elements of the device's technology have already saved human lives, as components of ABIOMED's, a temporary artificial heart system. The BVS-5000 is the only device approved by the FDA as a bridge-to-recovery device for the treatment of patients with reversibly failing hearts.
ABIOMED's artificial heart, which replaces the full pumping function of the human heart, is placed in the chest cavity after removal of the patient's diseased heart. It is designed for use by patients with irreparably damaged hearts and at risk of death due to coronary artery disease or other causes of end-stage congestive heart failure. The company estimates that such a device could save the lives of over 60,000 people per year in the U.S. alone.
"This new artificial heart technology has the promise to be a life-saving system," said Dr. Hillel Laks, chief of UCLA's Division of Cardiothoracic Surgery. "Advances in science and technology over the past decade have been enormous and have resolved many issues associated with past artificial heart problems. Our hope is that this new device will save lives for those patients for whom transplantation or corrective surgery is not possible."
Commenting on the collaboration agreement, Dr. David M. Lederman, ABIOMED's President and CEO said "we are delighted that this world-renowned medical center and its distinguished medical team have joined our efforts to bring cardiac surgery to this its most exciting and ambitious new frontier: the permanent replacement of the human heart with a viable synthetic device that fully duplicates its function."
UCLA Medical Center's Heart Transplant Program has performed more than 830 heart transplants on patients ranging in age from 2 weeks to 74 years. For the last three years, it has been the largest heart transplant program in the United States and in 1997 was the largest in the world. Laks, professor and chief of cardiothoracic surgery at the UCLA School of Medicine, initiated the cardiac transplant program at UCLA in 1984.
Based in Danvers Massachusetts, ABIOMED, Inc. develops, manufactures and markets innovative cardiovascular, medical and dental products and is a technology leader in the research and development of advanced artificial heart systems.
-UCLA-
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