Carmat SA shared their most significant achievement in a span of seven years after the firm got approval to sell an entirely artificial heart in Europe. It is a combined 27 years of effort that started with a French cardiac surgeon proposal to an aerospace company.
With the firm’s latest and rather biggest success, their market shares went up about 50 percent. This latest rise in the market shares value makes the company a total worth $496 million.
This week, the firm got a CE mark for the artificial heart. This makes it that the company can now sell this device in all of Europe. The latest validation from the authorities marks the device safe for use for those who suffer from end-stage heart failures. Given these hard times amidst the pandemic, this news comes in as some relief.
Alan Carpentier, a renowned surgeon and heart valve inventor, suggested developing an artificial heart for the first time in 1993. The proposal was made to a French Industrialist, Jean-Luc Lagardere, and he, convinced by this idea, developed a few labs fortuned to run at Carpentier’s disposal. The project saw a decent paced growth and expansion over the course of later years. Carmat’s biggest shareholder is the planemaker with a stake of 13%, while Carpentier is the second-biggest shareholder of the firm with a 5.3% percent hold.
It was a long journey of almost a decade for Carmat to reach this point. And their achievement is a record given the complexity of the artificial heart and its sensitive role in the human body. Stephane Piat, Carmat’s chief executive officer, in an interview with BFM business television, said that “We’ll have to work with doctors and medical centers now to offer our therapy, and we’ll have to look for patients. The production phase will be a delicate one”.
Carmat has plans to accelerate the production of the artificial heart in January. The second shift in its production is rather much needed, given the importance of such an invention.
Mohamed Kaabouni, a Portzamparc analyst, wrote on Thursday that the new invention comes with blockbuster potential. Carmat’s artificial heart could reap 700 million euros in yearly sales only in Europe, the rest of the world aside.
Kaabouni wrote about the Carmat heart, “Everyone was waiting for it, and it’s here now.” He further added, “The CE mark is crucial for patients, and the French company probably got approval for a blockbuster, given how large the medical need is and how rare and ineffective other solutions are.”
On Wednesday, the company said that it would start selling this medical gem from the second quarter of this year, a rather much needed one.