Description
Edwards Lifesciences is an American medical technology company headquartered in Irvine, California, specializing in artificial heart valves and hemodynamic monitoring. It developed the SAPIEN transcatheter aortic heart valve made of cow tissue within a balloon-expandable, cobalt-chromium frame, deployed via catheter. The company has manufacturing facilities at the Irvine headquarters, as well as in Draper, Utah; Costa Rica; the Dominican Republic; Puerto Rico; and Singapore;[] and is building a new facility due to be completed in 2021 in Limerick, Irelan.
History
Edwards was originally founded by engineer Miles “Lowell” Edwards in 1958. Edwards and Dr. Albert Starr, a surgeon at the University of Oregon Medical School, designed, developed, tested and successfully placed in a patient the first Starr-Edwards mitral valve in 1960. As a result of the successful heart surgery, Edwards Laboratories was founded in Santa Ana, California that same year.
Edwards was acquired by Baxter in 1985. It was spun off from Baxter in 2000.
On January 25, 2017, Edwards completed the acquisition of Valtech Cardio for $340 million. The deal had been first announced the previous November.
On December 6, 2017, Edwards acquired Harpoon Medical of Baltimore, Maryland for $100 million. Harpoon, founded in 2013, developed a minimally invasive heart surgery product for mitral valve repair to treat degenerative mitral regurgitation. At the time of the acquisition, the product was not available on any market.
On April 18, 2019, Edwards completed the acquisition of CAS Medical Systems of Branford, Connecticut for ~$100 million.
Edwards SAPIEN 3 and SAPIEN 3 Ultra Transcatheter Heart Valve systems were FDA-approved for the treatment of patients at low risk for death or major complications associated with open-heart surgery on August 16, 2019. These products are used to treat patients with severe aortic stenosis without utilizing open-heart surgery.
