CHENNAI/PUDUCHERRY: If clinical trials are completed successfully, India will be only the second country after the US to develop an anticoagulation bioprosthetic valve (BPV) for the heart, indigenously, according to Dr KM Cherian, the renowned Cardiothoracic surgeon, of Frontier Life Line Hospital, Chennai, interacting with the media in Puducherry, on Thursday.
This will reduce the cost of such valves by more than half giving hope to millions of people in the country and abroad, said Dr Cherian.
The BPV is being jointly developed at the Dr K M Cherian Heart Foundation and the Frontier Lifeline Hospital is in stage III of its clinical trials, Dr Cherian added.
The indigenous BPV has the advantage that it is durable and does not require anti-coagulation drugs which have to be given in case of replacement of a damaged cardiac valve with a mechanical one.
He said that American BPVs cost around Rs 73,000 per valve which prohibitively expensive for poor patients. The indigenous one, once cleared, would cost round Rs 10,000. The indigenous BPV is being developed on a metal frame over which a bovine (Buffalo, Pig) tissue is attached.
Over 4 million people require heart valves every year in India. The valve and tissue business in the world is expected to be around US $8.5 to $12 billion by 2022, said Dr Cherian. If India could contribute even one percent of the demand for BPVs, it would save the lives of not only Indians, but people in SAARC and African countries, said Dr Cherian.