Investor Relations

World Heart Corporation (WorldHeart) is a global technology leader in mechanical circulatory support systems. WorldHeart aims to provide reliable, long-term mechanical circulatory support to the broadest population of heart failure patients. WorldHeart is presently focused on developing a next-generation continuous flow pump, the MiFlow™ VAD.

WorldHeart’s MiFlow™ VAD is expected to be the only bearingless, fully magnetically levitated implantable centrifugal rotary pump in clinical trials. It is an advanced, next-generation, continuous flow pump that uses magnetic levitation to fully suspend the spinning impeller, its only moving part, inside a compact housing. In contrast to pumps with blood or mechanical bearings, full magnetic levitation eliminates wear mechanisms within the pump and is expected to provide improved blood compatibility by allowing greater clearances and obstruction-free blood flow around the impeller. The Levacor VAD received unconditional IDE approval from the FDA in January 2010 to conduct a bridge-to-transplant (BTT) clinical study and has successfully implated 15 devices to date. In February 2010, WorldHeart paused enrollment in the BTT study to address three device refinements based on initial clinical experience.

In addition, WorldHeart is leveraging its expertise in magnetically levitated blood pumps by developing a pediatric VAD (PediaFlow™) and a minimally invasive VAD (MiFlow™) based on the PediaFlow VAD technology. The PediaFlow VAD is a small (AA battery sized), magnetically levitated, CentAxial™ VAD currently under development by a consortium, including WorldHeart, intended for use in infants and newborns. Development is funded by the National Institutes of Health, under a contract awarded to the University of Pittsburgh. WorldHeart’s MiFlow VAD is intended to provide full and partial circulatory support in patients in both an earlier stage of heart failure than currently used VADs as well as late-stage heart failure patients.

WorldHeart is a public company headquartered in Salt Lake City, Utah (USA), with an additional office located in Oakland, California (USA). Its stock trades on the NASDAQ National Market (ticker symbol: WHRT).