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 Carmat's device, which mimicks nature's work using biological
materials and sensors, is designed to serve not as a bridge to a
heart transplant but as a permanent implant, extending life for
terminally ill patients who cannot hope for a real organ, because
they are too old or donors are scarce.
Shares in Carmat rose as much as 19 percent on Friday after French
media reported that doctors had implanted an artificial heart made
by the company for a second time. The stock was up 2.6 percent at
0737 GMT (3.37 a.m. EDT).
The clinical trial will be considered a success if Carmat's first
patients survive with the implant for at least a month. The patients
selected suffer from terminal heart failure - when the sick heart
can no longer pump enough blood to sustain the body - and have only
a few weeks, or even days, to live.
Carmat said it does not plan to publish any information on the
results of this feasibility study until it is completed.
If the results of these first safety tests are positive, Carmat has
said it would fit the device into about 20 patients with less severe
heart failure, with an aim to request the right to market its device
in Europe by 2015.
Patient enrollment had been put on hold in March after the first
person to be implanted with the device, a 76-year-old man, died two
and a half months after his operation.
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Carmat's device, developed by a team of engineers from Airbus parent
company EADS, weighs about 900g (around 2 lb)- nearly three times
more than an average healthy human heart. It mimics heart muscle
contractions and contains sensors that adapt the blood flow to the
patient's moves.
It is powered by external, wearable lithium-ion batteries. Inside
the heart, surfaces that come into contact with human blood are made
partly from bovine tissue instead of synthetic materials such as
plastic that can cause blood clots.
Among Carmat's competitors for artificial heart implants are
privately-held SynCardia Systems and Abiomed, both of the United
States.
(Reporting by Natalie Huet; editing by Susan Thomas)
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