Case Study:
Tyers, Mike
As one of Canada’s leaders in functional genomics, Professor Mike Tyers has helped advance our understanding of the genetic and biochemic…
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Company wins Innovation Award for keeping hearts beating
12 November 2009
Renfrewshire-based Vascutek, a Terumo Company, has won an award for an innovative product that simultaneously replaces a diseased heart valve and its main artery. The company specialises in designing and manufacturing products to treat cardiovascular disease, and their new BioValsalvaTM has won the Nexxus 2009 Life Science Award for Innovation.
The company commented, "We are delighted to receive this award which recognises the dedication and design capabilities
of our staff in producing a new product that we believe will contribute to the saving and/or prolonging of many lives in the years to come. With an ageing population requiring increased cardiac intervention, our product has come to fruition at a good time. It's a wonderful feeling to be a part of creating a product that can make a real difference to so many lives.
"BioValsalvaTM proves that a product does not have to be new to be innovative. Vascutek combined two existing technologies to provide a solution to an old surgical problem, and created a new opportunity.
"The product was delivered by external collaboration between the surgical, academi and regulatory communities and by a cross functional internal project team made up from some very talented people from our regulatory, quality, marketing, R&D and manufacturing departments."
BioValsalvaTM is the world's first pre-assembled medical device combining a biological heart valve and a self-sealing vascular graft. Patients who have aortic valve stenosis with an aortic aneurysm - namely, both a malfunctioning heart valve and swelling in the largest artery leaving the heart, are at risk of severe, and often fatal, heart problems such as Congestive Heart Failure.
A new biomaterial invented by researchers at Vascutek's parent company (Terumo) however, made the invention of BioValsalvaTM possible. The new material used for the valve replacement allows both the biological valve and vascular graft to be stored together in the same chemicals and then function properly when put into action.
The device has been approved for use in 42 countries and more than 2,000 have been implanted. BioValsalvaTM allows surgeons to reduce both operating time and blood loss during replacement procedures. Surgeons can also expand the range of patients to whom the surgery is offered, perhaps including older or frailer patients, since the duration, complexity, and strain induced by the procedure is lowered.
In addition, the new device can reduce the need for anticoagulation treatment because surgeons no longer need to turn to preassembled devices that use mechanical valves rather than biological valves. Patients receiving a mechanical rather than biological heart valve need to take lifelong anti-coagulation medication, which biological valve recipients do not require.
The Award was presented to Paul Burns, Vascutek (pictured above) in front of more than 130 representatives of industry, academia and the NHS who joined Nexxus at Oran Mor in Glasgow on 11 November 2009 for the fifth Annnual Nexxus Life Science Awards.
For further information contact Jan Clark, Marketing Communications Manager, Nexxus T: 0141 330 1987, E : j.clark@nexxuscotland.com.
