BURLINGAME, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–JC Medical today announced the successful treatment of the first U.S. patient with the company’s first-of-its-kind transfemoral TAVR device, the J-Valve TF System. The patient was treated at The Christ Hospital – Cincinnati, Ohio by Dean Kereiakes, MD, FACC, FSCAI, Medical Co-Director of the Lindner Research Center, working with Drs. Joseph Choo and Geoffrey Answini. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the use of the J-Valve for patients with aortic regurgitation through the agency’s expanded access (“compassionate use”) regulatory pathway.
“The J-Valve TF system has specific attributes that differentiate it from all other currently available TAVR systems, which I believe will enhance the safety and efficacy of TAVR for the indications of aortic valvular insufficiency (regurgitation) and possibly valve-in valve replacement of failing surgically implanted bioprosthetic valves,” said Dr. Kereiakes. “J-Valve was clearly the best treatment option for our patient.”
The investigational J-Valve TF system is intended as a new catheter-based option for the treatment of patients who suffer from aortic regurgitation. Failing aortic valves make up a significant portion of patients with heart failure, a major public health problem with a prevalence of over 1.5 million in the U.S. and over 18 million worldwide. Aortic regurgitation is the primary indication for more than 20% of surgical heart valve replacements, but there are no transcatheter aortic valves that are approved in the U.S. or Europe to treat aortic regurgitation patients too sick to undergo open surgical repair.
JC Medical’s J-Valve System is designed to restore normal blood flow out of the heart and into the body, which may improve symptoms of heart failure such as shortness of breath, fatigue and chest pain. The J-Valve features a proprietary anchor mechanism that is flexibly linked to a self-expanding stent frame to uniquely attach to the failing native heart valve. The J-Valve does not require calcification of the native valve for fixation.
“We are very pleased that our J-Valve could help this patient. We developed the J-Valve to be reliable and suitable for treating a broad range of heart valve diseases,” said Ji Zhang, M.D., founder and Chief Technical Officer of JC Medical. “We thank the physician group who has recognized this unique clinical solution. Heart failure due to a defective aortic valve leads to a significant decrease in the quality of life, the loss of life for many, and costs the healthcare system billions of dollars annually. We look forward to further exploring the promise of J-Valve and its role in treating failing aortic heart valves.”
The world’s first J-Valve TF implant was performed earlier this year by Drs. John Webb and Jian Ye at St. Paul’s Hospital in Vancouver, Canada. This case was recently published online ahead of print in EuroIntervention (November 20, 2018).
The company plans to initiate a U.S. clinical trial of the J-Valve in 2019.
About JC Medical, Inc.
JC Medical, Inc. is a private, venture-backed medical device company transforming the treatment of aortic valve disease, a growing clinical need in the face of the prevalence of heart disease due to a failing aortic valve and an aging population. For more information, visit www.j-valve.com.
The J-Valve Transapical System received the CFDA approval in April 2017 and is commercially available in China. The J-Valve Transfemoral (TF) System is currently under clinical development and is for investigational use only.
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