PARIS – Miracor Medical SA secured a $28 million series E funding round for its Pressure-controlled Intermittent Coronary Sinus Occlusion (PiCSO) impulse system, intended for treating patients presenting with ST-Elevation Myocardial Infarction (STEMI). “This funding will be used to move the PiCSO clinical trial program forward, and to begin distributing our technology in Europe,” Olivier Delporte, CEO of Miracor, told BioWorld.

Boston Scientific Corp. reported the controlled launch of its Acurate Neo2 aortic valve system in Europe. The next-generation transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI) technology extends the clinical performance of the original Acurate Neo platform and includes an expanded indication for patients with aortic stenosis.

The U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) recently proposed some changes to national coverage policies for left ventricular assist devices (LVADs) and artificial hearts, the latter of which would no longer be covered under a national coverage determination. The proposal to allow Medicare administrative contractors (MAC) to make coverage decisions for artificial hearts on a case-by-case basis clanged across both industry and medical societies, which cited data collection problems and inequalities in access as reasons the existing coverage policy should remain in place.

Scientists long have puzzled over what goes wrong in people with cardiovascular disease. Now, they have created a cellular and molecular map of the healthy human heart, with an eye toward preventing some of the 17.9 million deaths from cardiovascular disease that occur each year.