In early December 2017, it was announced that Harpoon Medical had been acquired in a $250M transaction by Edwards Life Sciences: $100 up front with $150M in milestones. Harpoon is a development stage medical device company commercializing a minimally invasive, image guided surgical tool for beating heart mitral valve repair. The technology was developed in the Division of Cardiac Surgery at The University of Maryland School of Medicine. With the Harpoon device, surgeons can access and repair the mitral valve in a beating heart via a small incision between the ribs without the need for cardiac arrest or cardiopulmonary bypass. The tool enters the left ventricle transapically and inserts bulky knot neochords in the leaflet to eliminate mitral valve regurgitation. When introduced to the market, the Harpoon device should transform the traditional open heart mitral valve surgical procedure from a complex 3-6 hour operation to a 60-minute procedure and reduce the recovery period from weeks to days.
