Heart failure has been one of the major causes of death across the globe. More than 6 million people live with chronic heart failure in the US alone, and 500,000 more cases add up every year. Once the fat starts to build up inside the arteries, it results in the decreased efficiency of the heart in pumping blood and ultimately resulting in its failure.
Interventional procedures are followed to prevent the failing heart. However, the procedure is very complex, and it becomes very much important for the healthcare professionals to keep the heart in a functioning state for a short term till it’s operated. This is where catheters are used as a short-term fix to the failing heart. There are very few companies that specialize in innovating and developing these catheters. PulseCath is the only company in the world that provides pulsatile flow solutions to increase the capacity and efficiency of the heart. Its cutting-edge technology and affordable prices have made it a market leader.
Oren Malchin, VP of Marketing & Sales at PulseCath, were with the CEOViews team to share their story and mission to save lives.
Inception of Pulsecath
When asked about the company’s inception, Oren Malchin said, Intraaortic balloons have been in use since 1960. But to increase the cardiac output, there was a need for a pump stronger than these pumps. PulseCath started in 2010, intending to develop a system that could increase blood pressure. The idea behind the company was to develop a short-term mechanical support system to unload the left ventricle of the heart during complicated procedures that may put the patient at risk of complications or death.
They wanted to have the simplest solution equipped with a cutting-edge technology that would pump the blood from the ventricle into the aorta and increase the cardiac output, thus, increasing the blood pressure in the system. Their second goal was to develop this technology at an affordable price so that the price-sensitive markets like Asia or Africa could have easy access to it.
Challenges
In the early days of their product development, people at PulseCath had two options to go with to develop the product they desired. One with the continuous flow mechanism and the other one with a pulsatile flow mechanism. Since they wanted to keep the product as natural as possible, they went with the pulsatile flow mechanism.
While the technology to prepare such a product was developed in the late 90s, it was not efficient. They wanted to improve this already existing technology and develop a product that is smarter, energy-efficient, smaller in size, and, most important of all, remains affordable to everyone. These were the challenges that they had in front of them while beginning with their research, and they were able to address most of these challenges with their able team.
Offerings
PulseCath’s core offering is the iVAC 2L, a short-term, fully percutaneous, 17Fr transfemoral LVAD effectively generates blood flow up to 2 liters per minute. By actively unloading the ventricle, the iVAC 2L provides critical hemodynamic support during high-risk revascularization procedures, in cases of acute myocardial infarction and cardiogenic shock, and for high-risk patients.
Advantages of iVAC 2L
- Fast and easy emergency support
- Standard transfemoral
- Fully percutaneous
- Highly flexible
- Cost-effective and familiar execution due to a universally adaptable design that fully integrates with a standard IABP
Team and Culture
PulseCath was started with a team of young engineers from the Netherlands. They were all passionate about the problem they were addressing and developed the product with utmost care. While the engineers were working on the core product development, their management team was involved in making sure that all the resources were at their place and were operating as planned. They have members experienced in the various niche who take their job seriously.
They have doctors with hemodynamic experience, a seasoned QA team to work closely with the industry regulators, marketing team, and various others. At PulseCath, it is not one of the people working on the project; it is one project for everybody, a combined effort of all the employees under one umbrella.
Driving innovation within PulseCath
Innovation has been a core strategy of the PulseCath team. They keep churning out innovations every now and then; most of their innovation comes from people in-house. Every month they hold meetings where employees are encouraged to share their ideas, Ideas that management deems to fit their mission, and then share them with various other teams to check the feasibility. Once it gets approval from all the departments, it is then implemented in their daily operations.
PulseCath’s core offering is the iVAC 2L, a short-term, fully percutaneous, 17Fr transfemoral LVAD effectively generates blood flow up to 2 liters per minute.
What’s ahead?
PulseCath is currently functional in the European region, Middle East region, India. In the coming days, they are planning to capture the market in China, the Asian Pacific countries, Australia and South American region. They have already started their registration process in these regions. Apart from this, they are targeting to submit to the FDA for entering the USA market and enter the African region by 2024 and create an impact on the lives there. With this, PulseCath is planning to work on its mission to provide cutting-edge solutions to the farthest regions at affordable prices.
