The artificial heart of Carmat. (archives) – BERTRAND GUAY / AFP
Seven years after the first transplant of one of her artificial hearts, Carmat should obtain European certification (CE) for its flagship product. This is in any case what announces France Info this Wednesday morning. Years of clinical trials and improvements have been necessary to reach this crucial stage: it must allow the relatively large-scale commercialization of these artificial hearts. A large relative scale because Carmat only plans to produce 300 machines per year, of which it is not yet known if they will be supported by social security. Moreover, the clinical study is not yet complete: seven patients still need to receive an artificial heart to complete the main component.
Until now, these machines are far from equaling the performance of real heart transplants: these offer an average of twenty years of additional life to patients who have it. profit. But the few months offered at best by the artificial hearts of Carmat can possibly allow to wait for the transplantation of a real heart, the shortage of which is glaring. 500 heart transplants are performed each year in France but 10 . 000 people are on the waiting list.