vcr v htw

Tiny heart pump seen as lifesaver for patients waiting for transplan.

November 06, 2007
BIOTECH minnow Heartware is trying to cash in on the global shortage of donor hearts with its 150gram pump to keep heart patients alive until a transplant is available.

With only 4000 donor hearts available worldwide each year, the company, which listed on the Australian Stock Exchange two years ago, estimates that the potential value of its device is $US7 billion ($7.6 billion).

Heartware's ventricular assistance device is one of the smallest heart pumps undergoing clinical trials in 22 people in Europe and Australia. The company expects the device will get approval from the EU and be commercially available by early next year.

Visiting chief executive Douglas Godshall hopes to launch it in Australia before the end of next year.

The pump has yet to get clearance from the Therapeutic Goods Administration.

Mr Godshall said that the company had applied to the US Food and Drug Administration to test the device on a further 150 patients.

"We hope to get FDA approval by 2010," he said.

There are about 400,000 patients suffering from heart problems in Australia and it costs the Government $14 billion a year to treat patients with heart failures.

"Congestive heart failure affects tens of millions of people worldwide and it is very expensive to treat them," he said.

Heartware's device cost US$75,000, which includes the computer and batteries but not the cost of the implant surgery, which has been estimated to cost an extra US$140,000 in the US.

"Our device can be surgically inserted into the heart area of the patient without touching the abdomen. The device has only one moving part which ensures that it will keep on running.

"The pump has a tube which comes out of the patient's abdomen which is then attached to a computer the size of a small camera bag carried by the patient."

He said that the majority of heart pumps are used as a bridge to transplant rather than as a permanent device.

The current market leader is Thoratec, a US medical device company, but its heart pump is "massive at 1.5kg and is the only one approved for use in America," Mr Godshall said.

Heartware has a close rival, Ventracor, another listed company on the stock exchange which is also trying to penetrate the US market.