Valcare Medical has announced the appointment of Jeffrey B Jump and Jacques Séguin to its board of directors.
The appointments will provide strategic guidance as Valcare advances enrolment in the AMEND TS early feasibility study (EFS) of the Amend transcatheter mitral annuloplasty system and prepares for subsequent clinical trials.
Jump is a veteran medical device executive with over 45 years of international experience and 20 years at the board level. He most recently founded and served as chairman and CEO of MedAlliance, sold to Cordis for US$1.2 billion. He previously led publicly listed Biosensors International as CEO for 13 years and currently chairs Casper Medical, TexRay, and Transluminal/Circlage, and serves on the boards of Valcare Medical and Compahya SA.
Séguin is professor of cardiac surgery at Paris University, and was responsible for developing the self-expandable transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI) procedure CoreValve, a company he founded and was subsequently acquired by Medtronic in 2009. After that, he was founder at ReCor Medical, a renal denervation company acquired by the Japanese company Otsuka in 2018 and is currently founder, investor and board member of many medtech companies.
“We are thrilled to welcome these exceptional industry leaders to our Board,” said Steve Sandweg, CEO of Valcare Medical. “Their deep expertise in structural heart innovation, clinical development, and commercialisation will be invaluable as we progress our clinical programmes and drive toward transforming treatment for patients suffering from severe mitral regurgitation.”
The Amend transcatheter mitral valve repair (TMVr) annuloplasty system delivers a closed, D-shaped, semi-rigid annuloplasty ring via a percutaneous approach. Designed to replicate the anatomical remodelling and proven outcomes of traditional surgical annuloplasty, the gold standard in open-heart mitral valve repair, the Amend system uniquely preserves options for future interventions if needed.
The first procedure was performed in the EFS at Banner – University Medical Center, (Phoenix, USA). The EFS is slated to enrol up to 15 patients in seven investigational centres in the USA and is expected to pave the way for a pivotal study anticipated in 2027.
