CardioExchange Archive

The FDA’s Circulatory System Devices Panel voted overwhelmingly on Wednesday to recommend an expanded indication for the Edwards Sapien Transcatheter Heart Valve in patients with symptomatic severe aortic stenosis who have high operative risk. The device is currently approved for use only in patients who are not surgical candidates.

The committee voted 10-2 that the Sapien device was safe, 12-0 that it was effective, and 11-0, with 1 abstention, that the benefits of the device outweighed the risks. Much of the day was spent by committee members wrestling with a number of difficult questions raised by FDA reviewers prior to the meeting, including the possible introduction of bias in the pivotal PARTNER A trial because some patients randomized to surgery did not undergo surgery, the difficulty of evaluating the transapical approach due to the small number of patients randomized in that stratum of PARTNER, and the higher incidence of stroke and aortic regurgitation in the Sapien group.

Ultimately, however, the committee was persuaded by the totality of the data from PARTNER and additional nonrandomized data from patients who received the device under a continued access protocol. An additional strong source of reassurance for the panel was the safeguard provided by the TVT registry, a joint initiative from the Society of Thoracic Surgeons and the American College of Cardiology that will closely monitor the use of TVR in clinical practice.

In sharp contrast to many recent advisory committee meetings, this panel was marked by the absence of drama and tension. A high point of the meeting for many observers was the public comment session. One speaker was a 92-year-old Sapien recipient who was a World War II veteran and prisoner of war who had survived the Bataan Death March. Another patient who spoke in favor of Sapien was the father of well-known Columbia University interventional cardiologist Jeffrey Moses, who helped develop the device. Moses said that he “wisely” chose to stay out of the case, though initially he did help persuade his father to accept the device after he refused to undergo surgery.