Potential setback for carmat as second artificial heart patient dies

Trading in Carmat Shares Suspended on Tuesday in Reaction to the Recent Death

French medical device company Carmat made an announcement on Monday that the second patient to be fitted with its fully artificial heart has died. The unnamed 69 year old man passed away nine months after receiving the transplant. At the time, Carmat had introduced a news blackout in response to the media scrum over the death of the first patient, however, the Wall Street Journal still managed to report that a second patient had received an artificial heart. The man unfortunately passed away in the hospital in Nantes, western France, where he had been admitted following blood circulation problems.

Shares in Carmat were suspended on Tuesday, and analysts at Exane BNP said, “This new case does not put into question Carmat’s artificial heart proof of concept but could raise uncertainties over whether the device will be approved for destination therapy [permanent implantation and not just a bridge to transplant].”