Shockwave Announces Collaboration With Abiomed on Physician Training

December 14, 2018 – Shockwave Medical announced a new investment and collaboration agreement with Abiomed Inc. As outlined by the agreement, Abiomed will invest $15 million in Shockwave and the two companies will collaborate on a training and education program in the United States and Germany focused on the benefits of complementary use of their respective technologies.

Shockwave’s intravascular lithotripsy (IVL) technology employs sonic pressure waves to safely crack vascular calcium within the vessel wall, which enables arteries to expand under low pressure and become more compliant. Shockwave markets its Shockwave M5 Peripheral Intravascular Lithotripsy Catheter in the United States and Europe. With increasing frequency, the Shockwave M5 catheter is being used in patients with heavily calcified Iliac arteries in order to facilitate the transfemoral delivery of sophisticated devices with catheters, including transcatheter heart valves and Abiomed’s Impella heart pump. IVL enables this patient group to benefit from these life-saving therapies when they would otherwise be ineligible for the procedure or would be at increased risk for procedural complications. In Europe, Shockwave also markets its coronary catheter – Shockwave C2 – which is used to treat severely calcified de novo coronary artery disease.

Shockwave Medical’s IVL System leverages similar principles to urologic lithotripsy, which has been used as a safe and effective treatment to break up kidney stones for several decades.  The generator produces energy that travels through the connector cable and catheter to an array of miniaturized lithotripsy emitters located near the calcified lesion. With the integrated balloon expanded to ultra-low pressure, a small electrical discharge at the emitters vaporizes the fluid within the balloon, creating a rapidly expanding bubble that collapses within microseconds. The bubble’s expansion and collapse generates a series of sonic pressure waves that travel through the fluid-filled balloon and pass through soft vascular tissue, selectively cracking any hardened calcified plaque inside the vessel wall. After the calcium has been fractured, the integrated balloon can be expanded, performing angioplasty safely at low pressures.

For more information: www.shockwavemedical.com