Artificial heartmaker Carmat will begin sales of its devices from the second quarter of this year after a long-awaited European Commission approval.
Carmat this week obtained a CE mark for the device, meaning the company can now sell it in the European Union as a bridge to a heart transplant for patients suffering from irreversible end-stage heart failure. Surgeon and heart-valve inventor Alain Carpentier proposed development of an artificial heart to French industrialist Jean-Luc Lagardere in 1993. Lagardere put a few labs and engineers frrom his Matra missile company at Carpentier’s disposal and the project expanded over the years, including through the mergers that led to Matra becoming part of what is now Airbus SE. The planemaker is Carmat’s biggest shareholder, with a 13% stake, while Carpentier owns about 5.3%.
