Valtech Cardio

Valtech Cardio was a privately held medical device company based in Or Yehuda, Israel, that specialized in developing technologies for mitral and tricuspid valve repair and replacement. The company was co-founded in 2005 by serial entrepreneur Amir Gross, along with Yossi Gross and the venture capital fund Peregrine Ventures. Amir Gross, who served as CEO, is a MedTech executive who has founded multiple structural heart technology companies, successfully leading them from concept to acquisition.

The company's core business centered on providing less invasive treatment options for patients with heart valve diseases, such as mitral and tricuspid regurgitation. Its flagship product was the Cardioband System, a transcatheter-based technology that allows physicians to repair the mitral or tricuspid valve without open-heart surgery. This system involves inserting a catheter into the femoral vein to deliver and implant a reconstruction device that reshapes the valve annulus, mimicking a standard surgical annuloplasty. The technology was designed to offer a safer and more effective alternative for patients, particularly those considered high-risk for traditional surgery. The Cardioband received CE Mark approval for sale in Europe in September 2015, enabling its commercial use in that market.

Valtech Cardio's business model focused on the development, in-house manufacturing, and clinical validation of its proprietary medical devices. The company's primary clients are hospitals and cardiac surgeons performing structural heart procedures. A significant milestone for Valtech Cardio was its acquisition by Edwards Lifesciences, a global leader in structural heart disease innovations. The deal, announced in November 2016 and closed in January 2017, involved an initial payment of $340 million in cash and stock, with potential for up to $350 million in additional milestone payments over the following decade. Before the acquisition, Valtech spun off its early-stage transseptal mitral valve replacement program into a separate company called Mitraltech (later Cardiovalve), which Edwards retained an option to acquire. Keywords: Valtech Cardio, Cardioband System, transcatheter mitral valve repair, transcatheter tricuspid valve repair, structural heart disease, medical devices, heart valve disease, mitral regurgitation, tricuspid regurgitation, annuloplasty, Amir Gross, Edwards Lifesciences acquisition, Peregrine Ventures, cardiac technology, heart valve replacement, minimally invasive cardiac surgery, CE Mark, MedTech, cardiovascular devices, heart failure treatment