Abiomed’s PROTECT Trial

Abiomed holds the distinction of keeping medtech in the discussion when it came down to the pandemic. While chatter circled around diagnostics and vaccines, the Danvers, MA-based company was able to win emergency use authorization for the Impella RP to include patients suffering from COVID-19 related heart failure or decompensation, including pulmonary embolism. 

The firm returned to form at TCT with the PROTECT III study showing PROTECT II-like patients (those that would have qualified for PROTECT II) who underwent high-risk PCI had 90-day major adverse cardiac and cerebral vascular event (MACCE) rates of 15.1% (n=390) vs. 21.9% in the Impella arm of the PROTECT II study, a relative risk reduction of 31% (p=0.037).