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The shares of the French company Carmat SA on Thursday registered the largest increase in the last seven years, after the company received approval to sell the first completely artificial heart in Europe, Bloomberg reports according to Agerpres.
At around 11:29 a.m., Carmat shares rose 34% on the Paris Stock Exchange, after rising as much as 50%, the biggest single-day jump since May 2013. From the beginning of the year to To date, Carmat’s shares have risen 66%, giving the company a market value of around 407 million euros.
On Wednesday, the French company obtained the CE marking for its artificial heart, which means that now Carmat can sell its product in the European Union as a bridge for heart transplants.
French heart surgeon Alain Carpentier proposed the development of an artificial heart to industrialist Jean-Luc Lagardere in 1993. Lagardere decided to make several laboratories and engineers from his Matra missile company available to Carpentier and over the years the project expanded, including through mergers , since Matra is now part of the European Airbus SE group. The aircraft maker is now Carmat’s largest shareholder, with a 13% stake, while Alain Carpentier’s stake is roughly 5.3%.
It took Carmat ten years to get CE marked, “a record rank, given the complexity of such a device,” said CEO Stephane Piat. “Now we will have to work with doctors and medical centers to offer them our therapy and we will have to search for patients. The production phase will be delicate,” added Piat. He added that the company plans to increase production of the new device starting in January, as it plans to start selling the device in the second quarter of next year.
According to analysts at Portzamparc, the artificial heart developed by Carmat has the potential to become a successful product and could generate annual sales worth 700 million euros in Europe by 2030.
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