InnovHeart—a developer of novel transcatheter mitral valve replacement (TMVR) systems—has appointed medical device entrepreneur J Brent Ratz as non-executive independent member of its Board of Directors. A press release reports that Ratz has more than 19 years of experience in the medical device industry.  He is currently co-founder and managing director of inQB8 Medical Technologies and serves on the Board of Access Vascular.

Previously, the press release says, Ratz was founding CEO of CardiAQ Valve Technologies—a venture-backed medical device company that developed the first system for TMVR, sold to Edwards Lifesciences in 2015 for $400M. Ratz was responsible for all functions within the company including product design and development, operations, quality and regulatory.  He was retained by Edwards Lifesciences and served as Vice President of Research and Development, TMVR, until 2017. Also, he is a named inventor on more than 24 medical device patents.

Keith D Dawkins, chairman of the InnovHeart Board of Directors, comments: “Brent will be an excellent addition to the InnovHeart Team. His proven expertise will help guide the development of the unique Saturn technology in the treatment of patients with mitral regurgitation.”

Ratz says: “The InnovHeart Saturn valve has the potential to address many of the challenges seen with other devices under development. The low valve profile helps to maximise the ventricular outflow area, while the novel anchoring system supports and stabilises the mitral annulus. The Saturn valve should be applicable to a wide range of patients because the unique design is not limited by variations in subvalvular anatomy.  I look forward to helping InnovHeart achieve success in this important field.”