A crowd of guests, local political figures and two ministers came to cut the ribbon. In the small courtyard at the entrance to the glass building bordered by the Seine, Louis de Lillers, general director of CorWave, does not hide his pride. “ This is a major step. We were a research and development company [R&D]. We are also now an industrial company »he emphasizes.
It is on the ground floor of this building located in Clichy (Hauts-de-Seine), where its R&D teams have already occupied the fifth and sixth floors for several months, that the tricolor medtech (80 employees) inaugurated, Monday October 9, its urban factory for the manufacture of its innovative heart pumps. Founded in 2012, the Ile-de-France company is developing an implantable medical device intended for patients suffering from severe heart failure, whose heart has become too weak to pump blood effectively.
Its technology, based on an undulating membrane inspired by the swimming of aquatic animals, makes it possible to reproduce a pulse and blood flow speeds similar to those of a healthy heart, where constant flow rotary pumps, which dominate today the market, are currently unable to do so. This specificity, which required more than ten years of R&D, would thus reduce the occurrence of serious complications such as strokes or gastrointestinal bleeding, which are currently frequent after implantation of this type of device.
Grabbing market share from the American Abbott
With this factory, CorWave is entering a new stage in its history. “ Our clean room is sized to manufacture 1,000 pumps per year, representing a potential turnover of 100 million euros”details the boss of the young company, which aims to win market share from the champion of the sector, the American Abbott.
The medtech paid 12 million euros for its factory, an operation made possible thanks to the fundraising of 61 million euros finalized in June from its investors, including Bpifrance, Sofinnova, Novo Holdings, but also the European Commission’s EIC (European Innovation Council Accelerator) fund. The bet is ambitious, because CorWave’s heart pump has not yet launched clinical trials on humans.
The Ile-de-France company is not the only one to take a close interest in this market. Another French medtech, FineHeart, is also in the running. Based in Pessac (Gironde), this company launched in 2010 has designed a miniaturized heart pump – barely ten centimeters – whose particularity lies in the absence of a wired cable between the device connected to the heart and the worn control box. by the patient using an abdominal belt. This wireless device enabled the company to obtain authorization from the Czech health agency at the beginning of October to start the first clinical trials on human patients. A head start which she hopes to take advantage of to win against her rival.