microport® endovascular hosted product launch of castor™2017-云顶国际

shanghai, china – from october 12 to october 14, microport endovascular (shanghai) co., ltd. ("microport® endovascular") attended the endovascology 2017 and hosted product launch of castor™ branched aortic stent-graft system ("castor™"). the conference aims to bring in the latest advancement and cutting-edge technology to china and to showcase the achievements in china's endovascular industry. more than 2,500 industry experts from over 40 countries including china, us, canada, south korea, australia, and egypt attended the congress to discuss about hot issues in the vascular surgery field worldwide.

the product launch of castor™ was held on october 14. professor zaiping jing, president of endovascology, chairman of the specialized committee of endovascology of chinese medical doctor association and director of vascular surgery department of changhai hospital of the second military medical university, professor zhong chen of anzhen hospital of capital medical university, bo peng, microport® chief marketing officer and chairman of microport® endovascular, zhenghua miao, president of microport® endovascular, as well as experts participating in castor®'s pre-market clinical trials, attended the event.

prior to the product launch, microport® endovascular showcased the development history of castor™ by video: the castor™ project was selected in 863 plan in 2006;, animal testing was completed in 2008; the first scientific research implantation was completed in 2009; the first pre-market implantation was completed in 2013; the last clinical trial follow-up was completed in 2015; castor™ entered the green path of china food and drug administration ("cfda") in august 2015; castor™ was granted the registration certificate from cfda to officially enter the china market in june 2017. many of the experts who participated in castor™'s clinical programs expressed their expectation on its post-market performance, hoping it could serve more patients in china and worldwide.

zhenghua miao, president of microport® endovascular, said: "microport® and microport® endovascular have been engaged in the aortic stent industry for 17 years, committed to providing world-class domestically made products to physicians and patients. we had been motivated by the persistence of professor zaiping jing and the support of clinicians along the journey and eventually developed the high-end innovative device castor™. the name 'castor' means 'gemini' in classical greek, implicating two branches, two approaches, as well as the cooperation between microport® endovascular and changhai hospital, between enterprises and hospitals, and between engineers and experts. in the future, microport® endovascular will continue to develop more innovative products to benefit patients and physicians worldwide."

professor zhong chen said, the development and launch of castor™ will exert important impact on china's vascular surgery industry. "castor™ is the fruit of ten years' cooperation between microport® endovascular and professor zaiping jing's team. as a domestically developed device, castor™ pioneers in china's vascular surgery industry and demonstrates chinese people's innovation ability."

during the product launch ceremony, microport® endovascular chairman bo peng and 13 experts participating in castor™'s pre-market clinical programs together pressed handprints to officially announce the market launch of castor™.

professor zaiping jing said: "twenty years ago, i had a dream that one day we can use the endovascular device independently developed by chinese people. guided by that dream, changhai hospital closely worked with microport® endovascular for ten years until the dream came true – today, castor™, the first domestically developed branched aortic stent graft, was finally launched in the china market. while enjoying the fruits of our success at the moment, i also want to encourage the young physicians in china and the whole world to keep innovating and making breakthroughs to revolutionize the vascular surgery industry."

during the "aortic arch repair summit" on october 14, more than ten experts had hot discussions on the new equipment and new technologies of endovascular repair of aortic arch. several experts shared their clinical experience in aortic arch treatment from different angles. they pointed out, branch stent technology opens a new path for the endovascular treatment of aortic arch. with unibody or built-in design, the branch stent connects the arch and branch in one body, conforming to the morphology of the aortic arch. castor™ is the world's first branched aortic stent that achieves revascularization of left subclavian artery with its unibody design. in the future, physicians may use castor™ together with chimney and fenestration techniques to treat aortic dissection involving left carotid artery and innominate artery.

castor™ adopts unibody design to achieve revascularization of left subclavian artery. it has good long-term anti-fatigue performance and low risk of endoleak and displacement. its tapered design, 5-30mm branch back removal length, multi-dimensional rotation angle and wide range of taper availability of the branch ensure that castor™ could fit various forms of aortic arch dissection to meet the demand of most patients. the design of castor™ innovatively accomplishes deployment and positioning of the unibody branched stent graft, achieving low endoleak rate and better branch artery patency. the launch of castor® marks a significant step forward in using endovascular repair to treat aortic arch, making breakthroughs in a key area clinicians have spent many years to research and explore.

during the meeting, microport® endovascular displayed its innovative products including castor™, hercules™-t low profile stent graft system, and aegis™ bifurcated stent-graft system ("aegis™"), and meanwhile fully demonstrated their features and application procedures by simulator operation. many experts were attracted to visit microport® endovascular booth and some of them had in-depth discussion with our r&d staff in terms of design features and surgical techniques based on their own clinical experience. in the future, microport® endovascular will continue to innovate to develop more leading innovative products and further cultivate the market of aortic interventional treatment, so as to offer cost-effective medical solutions to save or reshape lives or improve the quality of life for patients.