Abbott today announced new late-breaking data that show its HeartMate 3 heart pump extends survival of advanced heart failure patients by at least five years, providing a clear life-saving option for people battling later stage disease.
The data are from the Momentum 3 trial, the world's largest randomized clinical trial to assess long-term outcomes in people receiving a left ventricular assist device (known as an LVAD, or heart pump) to treat advanced heart failure. The data were presented during a late-breaking session at the 2022 European Society of Cardiology Congress in Barcelona, Spain.
The Momentum 3 trial studied more than 1,000 patients and for the first time in a clinical trial setting found that people with advanced heart failure who received the HeartMate 3 heart pump lived beyond five years.
The study showcases the benefits of Abbott's heart pump technology, particularly in a patient population who – without a heart pump or transplant – would have limited therapy options or would require living with inotropic medication to help strengthen their heart function, limiting their median survival to less than a year.
Historically, many advanced heart failure patients who don't qualify for a heart transplant rely on medication or are referred to palliative care to manage symptoms, but newer technological advancements like HeartMate 3 can provide this population another life-prolonging option. The benefits of heart pumps are especially true for the estimated 15,000 advanced heart failure patients whose median lifespan is under a year because they are on inotropic medication alone.
While some of these patients await a donor heart, due to a limited number of organs available, heart pumps like the HeartMate 3 can improve survival while offering immediate, significant and sustained quality of life.
The latest Momentum 3 data also demonstrate that the five-year survival for HeartMate 3 patients (nearly 60%) is approaching the five-year survival rates of heart transplant recipients who have a similar risk profile.
More than 6.2 million Americans have heart failure, with diagnoses projected to double by 2030.
Abbott's HeartMate 3 heart pump is an implantable device that pumps blood through the body in people whose heart is too weak to do so on its own. It is the only commercially approved heart pump with Full MagLev technology, which allows the device's rotor to be "suspended" by magnetic forces, a unique design that has been proven to reduce trauma to blood passing through the pump, improving patient survival and quality of life. These factors along with its ability to produce an artificial pulse, results in the lowest rate of pump-related complications of any other blood pump.
About the data
The MOMENTUM 3 study data compared Abbott's HeartMate 3 pump to its HeartMate II pump in treating people with advanced (New York Heart Association Class IIIB or IV) heart failure. Analysis of the study's full cohort of patients after five years showed the following benefits:
- Established superiority of the HeartMate 3 over the HeartMate II: The HeartMate 3 goes beyond its two-year outcomes identified in previous Momentum 3 studies to become a true life-extending option. Results of the five-year study showed an improved survival rate of 58% with the HeartMate 3 (vs. 44% with the HeartMate II).
- HeartMate 3 demonstrated reduced morbidity and mortality: Greater survival for HeartMate 3 patients was largely associated with a reduction in deaths due to stroke, clotting and bleeding compared to the HeartMate II.
