After struggling for years to gain momentum, the ventricular assist device market appears finally to be coming of age. Second-generation VAD designs are performing well and seem to have largely addressed the pump durability and safety issues of the past that stymied growth and prevented this market from reaching its full potential. In the process, these new pumps, and their third-generation counterparts now waiting in the wings, are revitalizing interest in VADs among both physicians and patients, and propelling this potential multibillion dollar market to the forefront once again.

Recently, all three major players in the ventricular assist device market have consolidated. In May of this year, Baxter International merged its Novacor VAD business into World Heart. Not long after, Thoratec Laboratories acquired the ThermoCardiosystems division of Thermo Electron. Each deal had a different primary motive, but the companies all share a common goal of positioning their businesses for a long and expensive development process.

A new generation of miniature, totally implantable devices for end-stage congestive heart failure promises to return patients to normal lives. If the implantable ventricular assist devices can function reliably for many years, they may offer patients an alternative to heart transplantation and even arrest the progression of the diseases at earlier stages.

{Hemopump} inventor Richard Wampler, MD is behind Kriton Medical's new implantable miniature left ventricular assist device.