Abiomed Surpasses 50,000 Impella® Patients Treated in the United States

Milestone Highlights Significant Unmet Need for Treatment Options Among Advanced Heart Failure Patients

DANVERS, Mass., Feb. 23, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Abiomed, Inc. (NASDAQ:ABMD), a leading provider of breakthrough heart support technologies, announced that it has supported more than 50,000 patients in the U.S. with its Impella^® line of heart pumps. Impella heart pumps enable minimally invasive treatment for high risk heart failure patients who might otherwise have no treatment options.

The 50,000^th patient supported with an Impella device was treated by Dr. Subhash Banerjee, Professor of Medicine at the University of Texas Southwest Medical Center and Chief of Cardiology at the Dallas VA Medical Center. "Impella heart pumps enable percutaneous treatment options for high risk heart failure patients who have been turned-down for surgery," said Dr. Banerjee, who performed the procedure with the Impella CP^®. "Hemodynamic stability is essential to treating these types of high risk patients and with the support of an Impella device, we are able to safely perform complete and complex coronary interventions on patients that might not have been treated previously."

Impella heart pumps are the first and only temporary percutaneous ventricular support devices that are FDA-approved as safe and effective for use in high-risk percutaneous coronary interventions (PCI) as well as the treatment of cardiogenic shock, a life-threatening condition that typically occurs during or after a heart attack, or post-cardiopulmonary bypass surgery.

Heart failure and coronary heart disease are the number one cause of death in the United States, causing one out of every three deaths, or nearly 900,000 deaths each year.¹ This heart failure epidemic currently affects 5.7 million Americans and by the year 2030 that number is expected to grow by 46 percent.^1,2   While, to date, over 50,000 patients have been treated with Impella in the United States, Impella is currently used in only 1 percent of PCIs and in less than 10 percent of patients experiencing an AMI complicated by cardiogenic shock. As a result, tens of thousands of patients remain undertreated and potentially unaware of the procedural options Impella can afford physicians.