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All events A cheaper and natural heart valve
Plastic heart valves that are absorbed and broken down by the body, allowing the patient to make a natural heart valve, that is the purpose of Xeltis. In contrast with the current heart valves, these heart valves may last a lifetime. As a result, patients no longer have to swallow blood thinners. Xeltis wants to be the standard in health care in the future.
“The best moment was definitely when the first patients in the hospital got our heart valves, I will never forget that”,
Martijn Cox, CTO Xeltis
Xeltis was founded in 2006 as a spin-off of the University of Zurich. In 2012 QTIS/e, a spin-off of the TU/e, fused with Xeltis and continued under that name. The company is now active in both Switzerland and The Netherlands, with the largest part of its workforce in Eindhoven.
At the moment, the company is running feasibility studies in the United States, that are evaluating Xeltis’ novel restorative pulmonary heart valve for Right Ventricular Outflow Tract reconstruction. “We are working to solve a big problem. Every year, hundreds of thousands of people need a new heart valve and this technology will make that a lot easier and cheaper. Our goal is to help these people and make heart valves that are absorbed by the body itself.”
In the future, Xeltis wants to apply their technology for more than only heart valves: “We have now focused on heart valves for children, but the technology behind it can be used much wider. In the future, we’ll also be able to make this for adults and we can also start focusing on blood vessels and other applications.”