ARTICLE SUMMARY:
In transcatheter mitral valve replacement, InnovHeart aims to replicate surgical experience, including ease of delivery and the ability to fit more patients.
In 33 years of working in heart valve R&D, Giovanni Righini, the founder of InnovHeart (Milan, Italy), has come to respect the knowledge of cardiac surgeons. That’s why he has set out to replicate that experience to the extent possible in the development of a transcatheter mitral valve replacement.
After spending the 1990s directing R&D at the surgical heart valve manufacturer Sorin, Righini wanted to join the revolution in transcatheter aortic valve therapy. In the 2000s, he joined Symetis (now part of Boston Scientific after a 2017 acquisition), the developer of the Acurate TAVR product line.
Ten years later, Righini says, he felt that transcatheter development on the aortic side had plateaued with the availability of several devices from Edwards Lifesciences, Medtronic (which had acquired CoreValve), Boston Scientific (after acquiring Sadra Medical), JenaValve, and Direct Flow Medical, so he turned his attention to the underserved mitral valve space. In November 2010, he filed his first patent application on the ideas that led to InnovHeart.
