The WHO says CVDs are a group of disorders of the heart and blood vessels and include coronary heart disease, cerebrovascular disease, rheumatic heart disease and other conditions.
“More than four out of five CVD deaths are due to heart attacks and strokes, and one third of these deaths occur prematurely in people under 70 years of age,” the WHO says.
According to the American Heart Associationbetween 2017 and 2020, 127.9m US adults (48.6%) had some form of CVD, which accounted for 12% of total US health expenditures in 2019 to 2020, more than any major diagnostic group.
Behavioural risk factors of CVD include an unhealthy diet, physical inactivity, tobacco use and harmful use of alcohol, while environmental risk factors include air pollution. An increasing ageing population is also expected to further see the incidence of CVD rise.
Among this backdrop, the cardiology sector is emerging as one of the most profitable areas within healthcare, encompassing a broad range of products and services, including diagnostics, pharmaceutical and devices for treatment.
On the ASX there are several medtechs focused on the cardiac sector. Here are some turning heads of late.
Imricor Medical Systems (ASX:IMR)… ….. EBR Systems (ASX:EBR) Established in 2003 in Silicon Valley, EBR has developed the WiSE Cardiac Resynchronization Therapy (CRT) system, which holds the distinction of being the world’s first “leadless” pacing system for heart failure.
EBR focuses on treating heart failure patients with ventricular dyssynchrony, where the right and left sides of the heart are out of sync. In these patients, the right side of the heart beats, but the left side lags.
The standard treatment involves placing a lead outside the left ventricle to pace both sides simultaneously, but these leads can sometimes fail.
Roughly the size of a cooked grain of rice, EBR’s ground-breaking WiSE technology employs proprietary wireless techniques to administer pacing stimulation directly to the heart’s left ventricle and overcome problems associated with current standard of care.
The device consists of more than 100 meticulously assembled miniature electrical components, each delicately arranged by hand before being compacted into its cylindrical rice grain-like shape.
EBR announced positive top-line data from its pivotal SOLVE -CRT trial at the Heart Rhythm Society’s May 2023 conference. Additionally, the company released positive results from the SOLVE randomised sub-study in September 2023, further reinforcing conclusions from the primary study.
The company recently announced that results from its SOLVE trial had been published in JAMA Cardiology, an international peer-reviewed journal.
JAMA Cardiology is a leading journal for clinical investigators, clinicians, and trainees in cardiovascular medicine worldwide.
EBR is using a modular approach for its pre-market approval (PMA) submission to the FDA and is on track to deliver the fifth and final module in Q3 2024.
The company says commercial readiness activities are underway, including fostering relationships with key US clinical sites in preparation for FDA approval targeted in Q1 2025.
(20min delay)