Healthcare Industry News: arrhythmia
News Release - May 29, 2013
Hansen Medical Announces U.S. Food and Drug Administration Conditionally Approves New Study Design Evaluating the Use of the Artisan(R) Family of Control Catheters With the Sensei(R) X Robotic System for the Treatment of Atrial Fibrillation
Company Seeks to Expand U.S. Labeling; Anticipates Faster Enrollment Under Revised ProtocolMOUNTAIN VIEW, CA--(Healthcare Sales & Marketing Network) - Hansen Medical, Inc. (NASDAQ: HNSN), a global leader in intravascular robotics, today announced that it has received conditional approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to change the study design of its ARTISAN-AF Trial, a pivotal clinical trial evaluating the use of Hansen Medical's Artisan® family of Control Catheters with its Sensei® X Robotic Catheter System for treatment of Atrial Fibrillation (AF), the most common cardiac arrhythmia.
Under the revised protocol, the study will be a single arm, target performance goal study enrolling as few as 100 subjects at up to 14 investigational sites. The study will track two primary endpoints: Safety, defined as the incidence of early onset major adverse events and major complications through six months, and efficacy, defined as freedom from AF through one year. Additionally, data will be collected to measure radiation exposure and single-procedure success rates. The study will evaluate the use of the Sensei X System with the family of Artisan® Control Catheters for introducing and positioning the Biosense Webster NAVISTAR® THERMOCOOL® Catheter in patients with paroxysmal AF. While the approval of the revised protocol is conditional, it permits immediate enrollment of new patients at the Company's existing study sites, subject to site IRB approval. The Company intends to further modify the investigational plan to clarify data analysis information, but does not expect that these modifications will affect patient enrollment or data collection under the revised protocol.
The ARTISAN- AF Study was unconditionally approved under an investigational device exemption (IDE) by the FDA in October 2010 and was originally designed to enroll 300 patients at 14 leading hospitals, as a prospective, randomized study.
The principal investigator of the full trial is Andrea Natale, M.D., F.A.C.C., F.H.R.S., executive director for Texas Cardiac arrhythmia Institute. The co-principal investigator is Joseph Gallinghouse, M.D., electrophysiologist, at the Texas Cardiac arrhythmia Research Foundation (TCARF) and his team.
"We are excited about the opportunity to continue testing Robotic Navigation with the Hansen System", said Dr. Natale.
"I am very pleased that the FDA has approved the new protocol design submitted by Hansen Medical", said Dr. Gallinghouse. "This will greatly facilitate enrollment in the trial, and allow us to evaluate clinical endpoints in an expedited fashion. I look forward to the continuation of this critical study of ablation of atrial fibrillation using robotic navigation."
"This study is an important step toward expanding our United States labeling to include use of our Artisan family of control catheters with our Sensei X Robotic System to navigate certain ablation catheters, and we believe this will be a positive factor in the growth of our US EP business given our expectation that the ARTISAN- AF study will enroll patients much more quickly than the previous study design," said Hansen Medical President and CEO Bruce Barclay. "We are encouraged and gratified by the prestigious medical centers and physicians that are or have expressed interest in participating in the trial, and we believe that the study results will demonstrate important benefits of our technology for both patients and the physicians who treat them."
Atrial Fibrillation is the most common cardiac arrhythmia, and it affects an estimated 3.3 million Americans and 4.5 million Europeans. This number is expected to increase due to an aging population and a rising number of people with chronic heart disease. AF is associated with increased long-term risk for severe and disabling stroke.
About Sensei® X Robotic Catheter System
Through continued advancement of medical robotics, Hansen Medical has developed a next generation minimally-invasive, robotic catheter system, the Sensei X Robotic Catheter System which combines advanced levels of 3D catheter control and 3D visualization. This unique, state of the art technology has been used in over 10,000 patients, and is powered by an accurate, robotically controlled arm that allows for catheter navigation, stability and positioning within the patient's heart atria, allowing for the following system advantages:
Catheter Stability with Force-Sensing
Instinctive 3D Control
Potential for Reduced Fluoro Time for Physician
About Hansen Medical, Inc.
Hansen Medical, Inc., based in Mountain View, California, is the global leader in intravascular robotics, developing products and technology designed to enable the accurate positioning, manipulation and control of catheters and catheter-based technologies. The Company's Magellan™ Robotic System, Magellan Robotic Catheter and related accessories, which are intended to facilitate navigation to anatomical targets in the peripheral vasculature and subsequently provide a conduit for manual placement of therapeutic devices, have undergone both CE marking and 510(k) clearance and are commercially available in the European Union, and the U.S. In the European Union, the Company's Sensei® X Robotic Catheter System, Artisan Control Catheter and Artisan Extend® Control Catheter are cleared for use during electrophysiology (EP) procedures, such as guiding catheters in the treatment of atrial fibrillation (AF), and the Lynx® Robotic Ablation Catheter is cleared for the treatment of AF. This robotic catheter system is compatible with fluoroscopy, ultrasound, 3D surface map and patient electrocardiogram data. In the U.S. the Company's Sensei X Robotic Catheter System and Artisan Control Catheter are cleared by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for manipulation and control of certain mapping catheters in EP procedures. In the United States, the Sensei System is not approved for use in guiding ablation procedures; this use remains experimental. The U.S. product labeling therefore provides that the safety and effectiveness of the Sensei X System and Artisan Control Catheter for use with cardiac ablation catheters in the treatment of cardiac arrhythmias, including AF, have not been established. Additional information can be found at www.hansenmedical.com.
Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements regarding, among other things, statements relating to goals, plans, objectives, milestones and future events. All statements, other than statements of historical fact, are statements that could be deemed forward-looking statements, including statements containing the words "plan," "expects," "potential," "believes," "goal," "estimate," "anticipates," and similar words. These statements are based on the current estimates and assumptions of our management as of the date of this press release and are subject to risks, uncertainties, changes in circumstances and other factors that may cause actual results to differ materially from the information expressed or implied by forward-looking statements made in this press release. Examples of such statements include statements about the potential benefits of our Sensei Robotic System for hospitals, patients and physicians, our expectation that we will fulfill the FDA conditions to approval of our revised protocol and that the conditional approval will be made unconditional; the speed of enrollment of the ARTISAN AF Study under the revised protocol; and our expectation that the study will achieve its endpoints and demonstrate safety and effectiveness of our products for AF ablation procedures. Important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those indicated by such forward-looking statements include, among others: failing to satisfy the FDA's conditions to the revised protocol; failing to enroll patients in the ARTISAN AF Study at an increased rate following revision of the protocol; failure to obtain, or delays in obtaining, IRB approval of the new study design at current or new study sites or to execute clinical trial agreements with new sites; costs of carrying out the Artisan AF Study; failure to achieve one more more study endpoints; the occurrence of one or more adverse events involving our products or any study subject; safety, engineering and regulatory challenges related to our products; and other risks more fully described in the "Risk Factors" section of our Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended March 31, 2013 filed with the SEC on May 10, 2013 and the risks discussed in our other reports filed with the SEC. Given these uncertainties, you should not place undue reliance on the forward-looking statements in this press release. We undertake no obligation to revise or update information herein to reflect events or circumstances in the future, even if new information becomes available.
Hansen Medical, Heart Design (Logo), Hansen Medical (with Heart Design), Sensei and Artisan are registered trademarks, and Magellan is a trademarks of Hansen Medical, Inc. in the United States and other countries.
Source: Hansen Medical
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