Neovasc, a medical device company, has obtained the first patent from the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) for its Tiara transcatheter mitral valve replacement technology.
The new patent, entitled 'Transcatheter Mitral Valve Prosthesis', protects key aspects of the Tiara mitral valve prosthesis.
This is the first patent for the company's Tiara transcatheter mitral valve replacement technology.
Previously, Neovasc has filed patent applications in the US and other countries for establishing an extensive intellectual property estate covering the entire Tiara program, including the prosthesis, delivery system, associated accessories and methods of use.
Tiara is a self-expanding bioprosthesis designed to treat mitral valve regurgitation.
Neovasc CEO Alexei Marko noted the issuance of this first patent in the Tiara portfolio represents a significant milestone for the company.
"With this key intellectual property protection now assured and the successful completion of the majority of our preclinical studies, Neovasc is advancing the Tiara development program according to plan.
"We are working with the highly respected medical teams at Vancouver's St. Paul's Hospital and the Antwerp Cardiovascular Center, ZNA Middelheim to plan the first-in-human Tiara trials, which we expect to get underway in 2014," Marko added.
Results from preclinical studies of the Tiara were recently published in the journal JACC: Cardiovascular Interventions and were presented at the 25th Annual Transcatheter Cardiovascular Therapeutics scientific symposium.
