A better way of treating cardiovascular artery disease
Cardiovascular artery disease (CAD) is a common condition caused when enough plaque builds up in the heart’s arteries that blood flow is restricted. When this happens, patients can experience chest pain, shortness of breath and fatigue. The good news is that CAD is often preventable, with coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) being the gold standard for treating it. The bad news is that CABG surgery, which involves harvesting veins from a patient’s legs as grafts, has a high rate of failure. In fact, as much as 20 % of all implants become obstructed after just one year. Next-generation vascular graft technologies, such as a restorative vascular graft developed by Xeltis that eliminates the need for vein harvesting, could improve patient outcomes and expand treatment options. “Advanced innovative graft technologies have the potential to reduce repeat interventions, improve quality of life, and lower healthcare costs associated with graft failure and revascularisation,” says Xeltis CEO Eliane Schutte. Helping move this potential towards clinical practice is the EU-funded HeartRestore project.
A clinically scalable coronary artery bypass grafting solution
By combining the multidisciplinary expertise of the project’s clinical, scientific and industrial partners, HeartRestore, with support from the European Innovation Council(opens in new window), set out to move the field closer to a transformative, clinically scalable CABG solution. “We are proud of the strong collaboration across partners and the shared commitment to patient impact, aligning scientific ambition with practical translation,” explains Schutte, who coordinated the project. It is because of this commitment to collaboration that the project was able to successfully strengthen clinical and translational readiness for innovative CABG technologies. This included providing clear evidence-generation pathways, improving alignment with clinical needs, and progressing towards scalable manufacturing and regulatory preparedness. “This work ultimately created a credible route that innovative MedTech companies can follow to bring their novel CABG implants closer to real-world use,” adds Schutte. Xeltis itself has already done just that, leveraging the HeartRestore process to bring what will be the world’s first synthetic transformative CABG implant to market.
Advancing European innovation in MedTech
With a focus on bringing breakthrough cardiovascular implants to patients, HeartRestore has shifted the paradigm towards advanced, clinically relevant CABG graft solutions. “Not only will our work help advance European innovation in medical technology, most importantly, it will result in improved cardiovascular outcomes for patients,” concludes Schutte. Building on the project’s outcomes and momentum, Xeltis continues to advance its CABG implant programme towards clinical adoption. This includes finalising key development milestones, engaging with clinical stakeholders, and ensuring readiness for scale-up and market access.
