Ancora Heart Enrolls First Patient in European Multi-Center Study of Heart Failure Therapy

Ancora Heart Inc., a company developing a therapy to address heart failure, has enrolled the first patient in the CorCinch EU study, a European multi-center clinical evaluation of the AccuCinch Ventricular Repair System as a treatment for patients with reduced ejection fraction systolic heart failure (HFrEF).
 
The first patient was enrolled at Homolka Hospital in Prague, Czech Republic, by Prof. Petr Neužil, M.D., CSc., FESC, head of the department of cardiology at Homolka Hospital and principal investigator of the study. The AccuCinch procedure was completed by co-investigator Vivek Reddy, M.D., director of cardiac arrhythmia services at The Mount Sinai Hospital in New York, N.Y., along with Prof. Neužil.
 
“The transcatheter AccuCinch therapy is unique in its ventricular approach, which is intended to improve heart function by repairing the left ventricle for patients with systolic heart failure regardless of its origin,” said Prof. Neužil. “We are pleased to participate in this study because the AccuCinch has the potential to address the shortcomings of current medical, surgical and transcatheter treatments and restore quality of life and longevity for this large patient population.”
 
This is the second recently initiated Ancora study evaluating the AccuCinch system focused specifically on heart failure and the enlarged left ventricle. The study will enroll up to 132 patients from heart centers across Europe.
 
“AccuCinch promises to be an unprecedented method for improving the care and quality of life for patients with heart failure,” said Jeff Closs, president and CEO of Ancora Heart. “Enrolling the first systolic heart failure patient in this European study is an important achievement towards our goal of demonstrating that the therapy has the potential to fundamentally improve heart function. This study will provide us with valuable data on the therapy’s potential benefits.”
 
The transcatheter AccuCinch therapy is designed to complement and enhance the existing care cardiologists provide to further manage symptoms and slow, or stop, the progression of heart failure. For some patients, AccuCinch may have the potential to reverse the enlargement of the left ventricle. For patients where heart failure has progressed beyond the ability for medications and pacemakers to manage symptoms, non-surgical percutaneous device therapy with AccuCinch may provide an effective treatment option. The AccuCinch system is designed to directly repair the left ventricle of the heart, thereby addressing the fundamental issue in the progression of systolic heart failure.
 
An estimated 25 million adults worldwide live with heart failure, a condition in which the heart’s muscles slowly weaken and lose their ability to pump enough oxygen-rich blood to the body.¹ Heart failure patients suffer from debilitating symptoms including persistent exhaustion, trouble breathing, confusion and loss of memory. About half of heart failure patients have an enlarged left ventricle, the main pumping chamber of the heart, which causes more stress on the heart and leads to reduced pumping efficiency. Current heart failure treatments only partially address the enlarged left ventricle and up to 50 percent of people who develop heart failure die within five years of diagnosis.¹
 
Ancora Heart Inc., based in Santa Clara, Calif., is dedicated to helping people with heart failure feel better and live longer. Ancora Heart has developed the AccuCinch system, an investigational therapy designed to repair the enlarged left ventricle targeting the underlying cause of heart failure. The AccuCinch heart failure treatment was created to benefit the millions of patients who otherwise have no minimally invasive option available to them.

Reference
¹ Benjamin E.J., Blaha M.J., Chiuve S.E., et al. Heart disease and stroke statistics—2017 update: a report from the American Heart Association. Circulation 2017; 135: pp. e146-e603