Washington, DC, US – From October 29 to November 2, Shanghai MicroPort Medical (Group) Co., Ltd. ("MicroPort®") attended the 2016 Transcatheter Cardiovascular Therapeutics ("TCT 2016") held in Walter E. Washington Convention Center in the US. In the world's premier educational meeting that promotes and leads cutting-edge technologies in interventional cardiovascular medicine, MicroPort® impressed the attendees with its in-house developed innovative products Firesorb® Bioresorbable Rapamycin Target Eluting Coronary Scaffold System ("Firesorb®") and Firehawk® Rapamycin Target Eluting Coronary Stent ("Firehawk®"). In particular, live cases of Firesorb® and Firehawk® were the first events in the main arena of TCT 2016, the first time the TCT opens with live cases performed in Chinese hospitals.
Firesorb® Appears in the First Live Case of TCT, Six-month Results of Future-I Clinical Trial Released
On October 30, TCT 2016 live broadcasted a case using MicroPort®'s Firesorb®, conducted by Professor Yuejing Yang of Fuwai Hospital of Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences. The patient, 51, suffering from angina pectoris for two month, has past medical history of myocardial infarction and was treated by DES (drug-eluting stent) but had recurrence of angina pectoris two months before. Under the direction of OCT (Optical Coherence Tomography), Professor Yang implanted Firesorb® in bifurcation lesion of LAD (Left Anterior Descending).
Firesorb® is the bioresorbable rapamycin target eluting coronary scaffold system in-house developed by MicroPort®, and it adopts the same abluminal coating technology as Firehawk®. Its wall thickness is only 100μm-125μm, better than other competitive products, and the thinner strut could lower the crossing profile, shorten the bio-degradation time, so as to reduce the risk of postoperative thrombosis. As the device used in the first live case in TCT 2016's opening ceremony, Firesorb® drew wide attention from the audience and represents the world-class standard of the domestically developed medical devices.
On October 31, Professor Bo Xu of Fuwai Hospital of Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, released the six-month clinical, angiographic, IVUS, and OCT results of Firesorb® FUTURE-I Clinical Trial in the main arena of TCT 2016. FUTURE-I Clinical Trial is the perspective, single group observation, First-in-Man ("FIM") clinical trial of evaluating the safety and efficacy of Firesorb® in the treatment of coronary heart diseases. It enrolled 45 patients and the primary endpoint is 30-day target lesion failure, including cardiac death, myocardial infarction of target vessel and TLR (Target lesion Revascularization) resulted from ischemia. The six-month clinical, angiographic, IVUS, and OCT results demonstrated the safety and efficacy of Firesorb® in the treatment of patients with single de novo coronary lesions. On the same day, Professor Bo Xu introduced the features of Firesorb® in the session of Bioresorbable Stents. Aside from thinner strut, Firesorb® also features low drug loading. In Firesorb®'s target-eluting design, the drug only retains on one surface that contacts blood vessels, with 60% less drug loadings compared to similar products. Such design reduces the dose of drug, enhances the efficiency of the treatment, and prevents a large amount of drug residual from remaining in the body for a long time, while achieving the same clinical efficacy as other bioresorbable scaffolds.
Three Live Cases of Firehawk® Gain Recognition from Experts
On October 30, three live cases of MicroPort®'s Firehawk® were broadcasted respectively in the main arena and parallel sessions of the TCT 2016, among which two are complex CTO-PCIs (chronic total occlusion-percutaneous coronary intervention) performed by Academician Junbo Ge of Zhongshan Hospital of Fudan University, and the other one is the case of left main coronary artery disease by physicians of Fuwai Hospital of Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences.
In the first CTO case of Zhongshan Hospital, the angiography showed that the proximal part of the right coronary artery had total occlusion with calcification. With the combination of antegrade wiring technique and retrograde wiring technique, Academician Junbo Ge successfully implanted Firehawk® and finished the case. In the second case, Academician Junbo Ge implanted Firehawk® to treat occluded lesions of LCX (left circumflex coronary artery) and RCA (right coronary artery) for a 47-year-old male patient with coronary heart disease.
In the left main case by Fuwai Hospital of Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, Professor Yuejing Yang and his team adopted transradial approach by Crush technique to implant Firehawk® into a 50-year-old male patient. These physicians are the most experienced experts from Fuwai Hospital, and they finished the treatment in extremely short time, which won the applause from the audience.
In addition, the world-renowned interventional cardiologist Academician Runlin Gao was honored with the TCT 2016 Career Achievement Award. It was the first time such award was granted to a Chinese physician. Academician Runlin Gao is currently the Chief Cardiologist of the Cardiovascular Medicine Department of Fuwai Hospital of Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, the academician of Chinese Academy of Engineering, and is honored as the Father of China's interventional cardiology. Academician Runlin Gao said, the Career Achievement Award belongs to China and China's whole cardiology field. At present, China ranks No.2 with its percutaneous coronary intervention cases, following the US, and the rapid development and advancement of China's cardiology have profound impact on the US and European markets. As a leading high-end medical device company in China as well as the Asia, MicroPort® will continue to strive for innovation to provide better solutions to China and the world, and to benefit more patients with coronary heart diseases.