Sydney, Nov 20, 2007 (ABN Newswire) - Ventracor (ASX: VCR) today announced 10 US hospitals have implanted at least one VentrAssist(tm) as part of its US clinical trials, and that more centres are trained and awaiting availability of patients.
Since the Annual General Meeting on 24 October, there have been 14 implants of the VentrAssist left ventricular assist device (LVAD) worldwide.
There have now been 172 implants at 24 hospitals worldwide, with over 83 years of cumulative patient experience. The VentrAssist implantable blood pump is designed for long term use, and the longest duration implant is now over three years.
In the USA, 18 patients have been implanted as part of the Company's US Bridge-to-Transplant (BTT) Pivotal Trial, which involves approximately 140 patients. The trial aims to evaluate the safety and efficacy of the VentrAssist for short term use in patients whose heart deteriorates before a donor heart is available for transplant.
Eight patients have been enrolled in the US Destination Therapy (DT) Trial out of approximately 225 enrolments for the trial. The randomized trial is designed to evaluate the safety and efficacy of long-term use of the VentrAssist in patients with heart failure who are not candidates for a heart transplant.
In Australia, three patients have recently been implanted with the new version VentrAssist LVA4 under the Special Access Scheme (SAS). The new version features several enhancements introduced in response to physician feedback. VentrAssist LVA4 will be introduced in all markets as soon as approval is obtained in response to the regulatory submissions already made.
Next week, Ventracor Chief Executive Officer Peter Crosby will present at the 19th Annual Piper Jaffray Global Health Care Conference on Tuesday 27 November in New York City. Mr Crosby will speak at 12:30pm (US Eastern Time) and the presentation will be followed by a question and answer session.
A link to the live webcast and copy of the presentation can be viewed at:
http://www.ventracor.com or http://www.piperjaffray.com/conferenceson the day.
