Carillon hits the right note

Vantage
by Elizabeth Cairns
25 September 2018

Abbott’s MitraClip is suddenly hot property after the highly positive Coapt results presented this weekend, and now another mitral valve repair device has also hit in a study – though this time the data will not lead directly to a filing. In the 120-patient Reduce FMR trial, the Carillon implant developed by Cardiac Dimensions reduced mitral regurgitant volume by 22% at one year, compared with an increase of 8% in patients who underwent a sham procedure. The product works in a completely different way to MitraClip; where Abbott’s device clips the valve’s leaflets together, Carillon is implanted in the coronary vasculature to reshape the mitral annulus from the outside. A pivotal US trial of Carillon has just begun, with tougher endpoints – MACE rates and composites including mortality – so the device still has a way to go before it can compete with MitraClip in the US. Perhaps the Reduce FMR data will prompt a buyer to emerge. If not, Cardiac Dimensions’ venture backers, who have invested nearly $160m over the past 16 years, will have to remain patient.