ST. LOUIS PARK, Minn., March 14, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- NeoChord, Inc., a privately-held medical technology company leading the advancement of beating heart mitral valve repair in patients suffering from mitral valve regurgitation, today announced the appointment of Martin B. Leon, M.D. as Executive Chair of the U.S. early feasibility study (EFS) of the NeoChord Transcatheter NeXuS System, a transformational device for mitral chordal repair. In his role, Dr. Leon will be responsible for overseeing and leading the Company’s initiatives to advance its U.S. regulatory strategy for the NeXuS system. He will also collaborate to guide the Company’s overall global regulatory strategy as it continues to advance patient enrollment in its European EFS.
“As a preeminent thought leader and innovator in the field of interventional cardiology, we are excited to collaborate with Dr. Leon ahead of the anticipated launch of our U.S. early feasibility study later this year,” said David Chung, President and Chief Executive Officer of NeoChord. “We continue to see exceptionally strong clinical results from early cases conducted as part of our European study, and we are excited to move forward with our initiatives in the U.S. to advance down the regulatory pathway towards eventual FDA approval.”
“I look forward to working with the NeoChord team as Executive Chair of this early feasibility study in the U.S., particularly given the exciting potential of the NeXuS Transcatheter Mitral Repair Technology,” said Dr. Leon. “I believe the NeXuS system is uniquely designed to restore normal function via a minimally invasive approach for many patients with severe symptomatic primary mitral regurgitation and therefore may emerge as a technology category disrupting front-line therapy.”
Mitral regurgitation (MR) is the most common heart valve disease, affecting millions of people worldwide. If left untreated, MR may lead to chronic heart failure, the leading cause of hospitalization in the U.S. and Europe.
Dr. Leon currently serves as the Mallah Family Professor of Cardiology, and Director, Columbia Interventional Cardiovascular Care at Columbia University Irving Medical Center (CUIMC). He is also Director of the Center for Interventional Vascular Therapy (CIVT), Director of the Cardiac Catheterization Laboratories and the Director of the executive board of the New York-Presbyterian University Hospital of Columbia and Cornell Heart & Valve Center. In addition, he is the founder and Chairman of the annual Transcatheter Cardiovascular Therapeutics (TCT) conference. He has also co-authored more than 2,000 peer reviewed scientific publications and abstracts, which have appeared in the most prestigious medical journals. Dr. Leon has performed more than 10,000 operations.
About the NeoChord Transcatheter NeXuS System
The investigational NeoChord NeXuS Transcatheter Mitral Chordal Repair device is designed to restore function in patients with severe symptomatic primary mitral regurgitation (MR), a disease where blood leaks backwards within the heart, due to ruptured native chords and the mitral valve’s inability to close properly. The NeoChord NeXuS Transcatheter Mitral Chordal Repair device is unique from other mitral valve repair technologies in maintaining a natural physiologic functionality of the mitral valve. It is deployed through the vein using a transfemoral delivery catheter, navigated transeptally to the diseased native mitral valve. Due to minimal hardware used and the proven leaflet connection, NeoChord NeXuS preserves options for patients who may need re-intervention in the future.
In October 2021, the Company announced the successful completion of the first in human procedure with its NeoChord NeXuS Transcatheter Mitral Chordal Repair Technology in Bordeaux, France, as part of its European early feasibility study. In November 2021, the Company announced positive 30-day results following the procedure.
About NeoChord, Inc.
NeoChord is a privately held medical technology company leading the advancement of beating heart mitral valve repair in patients suffering from mitral valve regurgitation. The company’s commercially available product, the NeoChord Artificial Chordae Delivery System DS1000, received CE market clearance in December 2012 and has treated more than 1,700 patients worldwide. NeoChord is now adding the minimally invasive transcatheter chordal repair system NeoChord NeXus to its portfolio and is underlining the leading position in degenerative mitral valve chordal treatment.
For more information, please visit the Company's website at www.neochord.com.
NeoChord NeXuS is an investigational device and is not commercially available.
Contact
Jenny Donovan
NeoChord, Inc.
(952) 698-7809
jdonovan@neochord.com
