NeoChord appointed Dr. Martin Leon as executive chair of the company’s U.S. early feasibility study of its Transcatheter Nexus system.
Leon will be responsible for overseeing and leading the company’s initiatives to advance its U.S. regulatory strategy for the Nexus system. He will also guide the company’s overall global regulatory strategy as it continues to enroll patients in its European early feasibility study (EFS).
“As a preeminent thought leader and innovator in the field of interventional cardiology, we are excited to collaborate with Dr. Leon ahead of the anticipated launch of our U.S. early feasibility study later this year,” President and CEO David Chung said in a news release yesterday. “We continue to see exceptionally strong clinical results from early cases conducted as part of our European study, and we are excited to move forward with our initiatives in the U.S. to advance down the regulatory pathway towards eventual FDA approval.”
NeoChord designed its Nexus transcatheter mitral chordal repair device to restore function in patients with severe symptomatic primary mitral regurgitation, which happens when blood leaks backward within the heart.
“I look forward to working with the NeoChord team as executive chair of this early feasibility study in the U.S., particularly given the exciting potential of the Nexus transcatheter mitral repair technology,” Leon said. “I believe the Nexus system is uniquely designed to restore normal function via a minimally invasive approach for many patients with severe symptomatic primary mitral regurgitation and therefore may emerge as a technology category disrupting front-line therapy.”
Leon is the Mallah Family professor of cardiology and director of Columbia Interventional Cardiovascular Care at Columbia University Irving Medical Center. He is also the director of the Center for Interventional Vascular Therapy, Cardiac Catheterization Laboratories and the executive board of the New York-Presbyterian University Hospital of Columbia and Cornell Heart & Valve Center. Leon is the founder and chairperson of the annual Transcatheter Cardiovascular Therapeutics (TCT) conference.
