[Image courtesy of 4C Medical]
4C Medical Technologies
Brooklyn Park, Minn.
Founded: 2014
With transcatheter aortic valve replacement expected to become a $5 billion market by 2021, medical device companies including Edwards Lifesciences, Medtronic and Abbott have been spending hundreds of millions of dollars on companies working on the next frontier: transcatheter mitral valve replacement. 4C Medical Technologies, however, thinks it has a potentially better solution. Instead of replacing a person’s mitral valve, 4C Medical’s AltaValve device is positioned supra-annular to the leaking native mitral, preventing the leak from entering the left atrium.
By preserving the native mitral annulus and left ventricle while still treating mitral regurgitation, the AltaValve provides an answer to the complications presently associated with TMVR, according to the company.
4C Medical last year raised $8 million in a round led by Canadian angel network Anges Québec. The AltaValve won first place in the Cardiovascular Research Technologies (CRT) competition held March 3–6, 2018 in Washington, D.C.
–Chris Newmarker, Managing Editor
