Bypassing open heart surgery with Excimer Laser Assisted Non Occlusive Anastomosis (ELANA®): ELANA®

Programme(s): HORIZON.3.1 - The European Innovation Council (EIC)

Topic(s): HORIZON-EIC-2022-ACCELERATOROPEN-01 - EIC Accelerator Open

Call for proposal: HORIZON-EIC-2022-ACCELERATOR-01

Funding Scheme:  HORIZON-AG - HORIZON Action Grant Budget-Based

Grant agreement ID: 190101904

Project description:

A minimally invasive procedure for coronary heart disease treatment
A considerable number of people every year with coronary heart disease undertake invasive heart bypass surgery. However, this procedure has a high risk of complications and requires long recovery times. Funded by the European Innovation Council, the ELANA® project proposes to develop an alternative, minimally invasive operation that uses small incisions in the chest to perform the bypass. The procedure employs an innovative clip that overcomes the need for blood vessel suturing. Moreover, it eliminates the need for a heart-lung machine, reducing associated risks and shortening the recovery time. The project will undertake clinical validation of this novel approach and activities for market authorisation.

Objective:
We will revolutionise the medical field by replacing expensive, invasive and high-risk open-heart surgery, with “keyhole” minimally invasive surgery (MIS) to treat coronary artery disease (CAD). Our ELANA® technology enables reproducible coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) surgery
without the need of heart arrest and suturing, thus avoiding the need to open the patient’s chest. This is realised with an innovative clip which circumvents the need of suturing of blood vessels altogether. By realising closed-chest CABG, ELANA® reduces not only the risks associated with
traditional CABG, such as bleeding, stroke and wound infection, but also significantly shortens recovery times. As a result, ELANA® will reduce direct healthcare costs of CABG procedures by over 50%. To critically de-risk our technological development and accelerate market entry to 2025, AMT
Medical seeks a total of €7.5M funding (€2.5M grant, €5M equity) to finalise clinical validation and gain market approval.