February 1st 2021
Paris, February 1, 2021 – 7:00 am CET
CARMAT (FR0010907956, ALCAR), the designer and developer of the world’s most advanced total artificial heart, aiming to fulfill an unmet medical need by providing a therapeutic alternative to people suffering from end-stage biventricular heart failure, today announces the appointment of Professor Christian Latrémouille as Director of Surgical Affairs.
Doctor of Medicine specialized in Heart Surgery, Christian Latrémouille is a Professor at Paris University, formed by the recent merger of Paris-Descartes (Paris V) and Paris-Diderot (Paris VII) Universities.
Before joining CARMAT, Christian Latrémouille was, since 2017, Head of the Cardiovascular Surgery Department at the Georges Pompidou European Hospital in Paris. He began his career in 1993 as Senior Specialist Registrar within Prof. Alain Carpentier’s prestigious Cardiac Surgery department at the Broussais Hospital in Paris. Upon validation of a PhD in xenotransplantation, in 1995 he took charge of the heart transplant program. Initially Clinical Lecturer in 1995 and then University Lecturer in 2000, in 2004 he was appointed Associate Professor at Paris-Descartes University, university chair of Clinical Anatomy and hospital chair of adult Cardiac Surgery. Since then, he has been entrusted with the preclinical development phase of the CARMAT bioprosthetic total artificial heart.
Building on this experience, he performed the world’s first-in-man implantation of the CARMAT heart on December 18, 2013. He then became Principal Investigator of the CARMAT heart’s safety and feasibility study. Subsequently, during the PIVOTAL study, he continued as Proctor Principal, ensuring the training of all the new teams joining the project.
This career path makes him the only heart surgeon in the world to have participated in the CARMAT heart’s entire clinical assessment process.
“I particularly appreciate the trust put in me by allowing me to join CARMAT’s teams. The recent granting of CE marking and the prospect of soon performing the first human implants in the United States represent a major milestone in the development of CARMAT. Drawing on my experience, I am pleased to be able to take part in the final leg of this project in order to enable as many patients as possible to benefit from this innovative, ambitious and accomplished technology whose notion of quality of life remains the primary purpose”, says Prof. Latrémouille, CARMAT’s new Director of Surgical Affairs.
Stéphane Piat, Chief Executive Officer of CARMAT, adds: “It is an immense pleasure to welcome Christian Latrémouille to our management team. His arrival marks the completion of the structuring of our Management Committee with a view to preparing the launch of our Aeson device. His surgical expertise coupled with the unique experience he has acquired with CARMAT will be pivotal to the successful ramping up of our commercial launch. In his new role, Christian Latrémouille will accompany and oversee hospitals from the training phase through to patient treatment”.