ARTICLE SUMMARY:
A companion article to "Devices for Many Faceted Heart Failure." Adona Medical is already working on the next generation of interatrial shunts for heart failure. It's three-pronged advancement in innovation will include the ability to adjust the shunt after implantation, the frequent and automated gathering of data about heart pressures, and a data analytic platform with the ability to inform patient care and the development of future therapies for heart failure.
In the heart failure space, there is a great deal of optimism about a new class of device therapy called interatrial shunting. Such devices create a passage between the left and right atria to allow the flow of blood that reduces the elevated left atrial filling pressures that lead to congestion. This enthusiasm persists, even though pioneers Corvia and V-Wave failed, in their pivotal trials, to achieve their primary clinical endpoints around a reduction in adverse cardiovascular events. However, both trials did highlight a positive response in certain groups of patients, and the work of these companies, and other innovators in the space, is now focused on teasing out the characteristics of the patients who respond positively to the therapy.
Brian Fahey, PhD, co-founder and CEO of second-generation atrial shunt company Adona Medical, notes that his company benefits from the high-quality clinical trials of these companies in terms of understanding responders and nonresponders. But he believes that what the first-movers are able to discover is limited by the technology they are using. “Our current understanding of responder groups may evolve over time as more advanced technologies are introduced that enable studies to take a more patient-individualized approach and collect more information regarding the effects of the device.” To that end, he notes at least three major limitations associated with the platforms of other companies.
