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Robotic Valve Funding | NHS’ Cardiac Crisis
December 16, 2024
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Together with
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“Robotic catheter delivery systems are the future of cardiac valve interventions, it’s just a matter of time.”
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T. Sloane Guy, MD, MBA on the coming impact of cardiac robotics.
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Capstan Medical took a key step towards its vision of launching the first robotic cardiac valve surgery system, landing $110M in Series C funding.
- The new funding eclipses the $31M Series B round that Capstan raised in August 2023, bringing its total funding to over $150M.
- Capstan earmarked the funds for expanding its team to meet its upcoming development goals and execute its future pivotal trials.
Focusing on mitral and tricuspid valve diseases, Capstan’s treatment combines transcatheter implantation of a folded valve replacement with its X-ray and ultrasound-guided robot to align the low-profile implant with the beating heart valve.
- Capstan hopes this approach will enable it to treat patients whose anatomy or health risks may prevent them from receiving traditional minimally invasive or open surgeries.
Currently, there are no commercially available catheter-based implants for completely replacing a leaky mitral or tricuspid valve, meaning the diseases are largely treated via open-heart surgery.
- This means that less than 2% of the over 5 million MR and TR patients are actually receiving treatment, in part because many don’t qualify for open heart surgery.
- As a result of the gap, analysts estimate that a minimally invasive robotic approach to MR and TR treatments could become a multibillion-dollar market.
Capstan’s Series C adds to notable momentum in the broader robotic cardiology market, which has seen steady adoption increases across a wide array of applications over the last few years:
- Robotically-assisted CABG (1k+ procedures performed)
- Robotic aortic valve replacement (100+ study patients)
- Robotic mitral valve repair (2.4k+ cases so far)
- Robotic SAVR + CABG (1 procedure so far)
The Takeaway
While they once sounded like science fiction, robotic heart procedures are becoming a reality, and Capstan’s robotic system could be poised to take on one of the biggest care gaps in mitral and tricuspid valve diseases.
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Cardiology AI: From Research to Clinical Practice
Explore how AI algorithms are reshaping cardiology with insights from Tempus’ recent webinar, featuring Dr. David Ouyang of UCLA and Cedars-Sinai, alongside Tempus’ Dr. John Pfeifer and Dr. Brandon Fornwalt. This expert panel dives into how AI can bridge diagnostic gaps, enhance patient outcomes, and streamline workflows for conditions like AFib and pulmonary hypertension. Read the full recap to glimpse the future of AI-driven cardiology.
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FFRCT Slashes PAD + CAD Mortality
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TeraRecon’s Mitral Valve Workflow
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- NHS Heart Care Crisis: The U.K. launched a national probe into the deaths of thousands of NHS patients waiting for cardiac surgery. Cardiology waiting lists have doubled since March 2020, with 400k+ patients waiting for routine cardiac care. Only 58% of heart patients received care within the NHS’s 18-week target, while ambulances transferred just 31% of patients for life-saving heart attack surgery within the target window.
- GLP-1s for Kidney Failure: While several studies have alluded to GLP-1s’ kidney benefits, a new Lancet meta-analysis uncovered that they significantly reduce clinically important kidney events and kidney failure in patients with T2D. Among the study’s ~85k participants, GLP-1 receptor agonists reduced the composite kidney outcome (-18%), kidney failure (-16%), MACE (-13%), and all-cause death (-12%) compared to placebo.
- Impella’s Expanded Indications: The FDA expanded the indications for Johnson & Johnson’s Impella 5.5 and Impella CP heart pumps, granting premarket approval for their use in pediatric patients with symptomatic acute decompensated heart failure and cardiogenic shock. The PMA amendment expands approval to pediatric patients weighing ≥52kg for Impella CP and ≥30kg for Impella 5.5. Both heart pumps unload the heart’s left ventricle, allowing the muscles to rest while delivering oxygenated blood throughout the body.
- Lower BMI, Lower Costs: While it may sound obvious, reducing BMI could help lower health care spending. A cross-sectional JAMA study of 17k employer-insured adults found that patients with a baseline BMI of 30 were estimated to spend 7% less after losing 5% of their BMI and 30% less after shedding 25% of their BMI, with similar results for Medicare adults.
- Keros’ Cibotercept Concerns: Keros Therapeutics halted dosing in two of the three treatment arms of its Phase 2 cibotercept trial following reports of fluid buildup around the heart. Keros had been testing 1.5, 3, and 4.5 mg/kg doses of cibotercept, but voluntarily halted the two higher-dose cohorts due to pericardial effusion ADEs. Keros’ shares plummeted 65% on the news.
- BayCare Adds Cardio Practices: Florida health system BayCare expanded its cardiology reach, adding the providers and locations of Pediatric Cardiology Associates and Tampa Bay Adult Congenital Heart Center. The transition involves more than a dozen physicians and advanced practice providers, and a total of roughly 60 team members. Their patients are unlikely to notice much change, as they will continue to be served in the same locations and by the same physicians.
- Sensome’s Clotild Success: Sensome announced positive results from its SEPARATE and E-SEPARATE studies that demonstrated its Clotild Smart Guidewire System successfully identifies “fresh” clots in peripheral artery disease and differentiates them from other tissues during procedures. Though PAD affects 113M people worldwide, there is currently no simple method for physicians to determine what type of clot or tissue they are encountering when treating the disease, underscoring the potential of Sensome’s Clotild.
- DCBs’ PAD Declines: According to new JACC data, safety concerns over paclitaxel-coated devices for treating peripheral artery disease led to significant decreases in their use. Researchers explored data from more than 275k Medicare beneficiaries who underwent femoropopliteal revascularization from 2016 to 2023 and found the number of procedures decreased by 38.2%. Percutaneous transluminal angioplasty and DCB use was similar from 2016 to 2018 (27.7% vs. 24.9%), but PTA use significantly surpassed DCBs by 2019 (34.5% vs 17.9%).
- Vantis Series B: Vantis Vascular raised $10M in Series B-1 preferred financing to expand U.S. commercialization of its CrossFAST Integrated Microcatheter Advanced Delivery System, just a month after gaining FDA clearance. CrossFAST helps physicians perform vascular interventions more smoothly by coupling outer and inner extension catheters together, and provides additional support with challenging anatomies. The Series B-1 round increases Vantis’ total funding to $40M.
- ITPR1 Gene Linked to Arrythmias: Though calcium ion mishandling in cardiac Purkinje cells is a well-known cause of cardiac arrhythmias, the ITPR1-related mechanism by which this occurs is less understood. To explore this, researchers examined ITPR1 mutation variants in open data repositories and found that both mice and humans who experienced a gain of function mutation in the gene were more susceptible to stress-induced arrhythmias.
- Flu and HF: Flu season could be especially dangerous for HF patients. A recent JACC study suggests that influenza substantially increases morbidity and mortality in HF hospitalizations. The study analyzed hospital data in Denmark from 2010 to 2018 and found influenza led to 2.6% of extra all-cause deaths and 2.9% of cardiovascular deaths in patients with HF annually, with researchers attributing 5% of all influenza and pneumonia hospitalizations to HF patients.
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Optum’s Cloud ROI E-book
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The Next Step in Predicting Coronary Events
How can measuring non-calcified plaque burden change how we detect heart disease? Tune-in to Cleerly’s latest webinar featuring Sarah Bär, MD, PhD (today at 10am ET) to discover how Cleerly’s AI-powered coronary CTA plaque analysis is reshaping CAD risk prediction, beyond standard tests.
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- Experience the future of learning: Medtronic Academy 2.0 is here! Unlock your ultimate destination for structural heart medical education with the newly redesigned Medtronic Academy 2.0. Gain access to expert-led courses, webinars, and a wealth of resources to stay ahead in cardiovascular care. Visit now!
- A Single Cardiac Service Line Platform: Transitioning across multiple imaging platforms is a daily reality for many cardiologists, but it doesn’t have to be. See how three leading cardiac imagers are leveraging Circle CVI’s unified multi-modal software across their diverse caseloads, without switching to other platforms.
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