Yet another company is throwing its hat into the transcatheter aortic valve replacement system

(TAVR) market. However, Meril Lifesciences is going a different route than other established firms in the space and is initially targeting emerging markets. Meril has been around for 10 years and has been developing its MyVal TAVR technology for about six of those.

The company’s success in TAVR lies around the fact that larger organizations don’t consider emerging markets as the first option. The company said it would seek out approval in India first and eventually make its way to developed markets.

“We are positioned in a nice way, where we would like to offer the TAVR at a value proposition to emerging markets,” Sanjeev Bhatt, VP Corporate Strategy for Meril, told MD+DI. “We would also like to participate in the training and development of TAVR specialists in this market.”

TAVR is dominated in the U.S. by Dublin-based Medtronic and Irvine, CA-based Edwards Lifesciences. Edwards was the first company to gain approval for a TAVR valve in the U.S. Medtronic entered the TAVR market through its $700 million acquisition of Irvine, CA-based CoreValve in 2009. The CoreValve System was launched in the U.S. about four years ago, and the CoreValve Evolut R System became the first recapturable and repositionable TAVR device approved in the U.S. for severe aortic stenosis patients at a high or extreme risk for surgery in 2015.

For a time, Boston Scientific was thought to have a clear shot in the space, but the Marlborough, MA-based company’s continued delays of its Lotus Edge valve have caused it to take some steps back.

Smaller companies like Colibri Heart Valve LLC and JenaValve are also gaining significant footing in TAVR. Bhatt said despite the number of players in the space there is room enough for everyone.

“Today TAVR is not limited by how many players are out there,” he said. “It is limited by how many operators know how to use a TAVR [valve]. It’s also limited by how many devices are available at affordable pricing. The final limit is around how easy it is for the device to deploy. We have the right combination of these [to be successful].”