With the recent success of Ardian’s Symplicity Renal Denervation System, drug-resistant hypertension has emerged as something of a device market “gold rush.” Some observers estimate there are now as many as 40 companies developing various device-based therapies for resistant hypertension, including most of the big names in the cardiovascular device arena – Medtronic, St. Jude Medical, Boston Scientific, Johnson & Johnson, and Covidien PLC – along with a number of start-ups, all of which are racing to stake a claim in this highly promising market. Only time will tell which companies will be successful – even Medtronic, the first player, has yet to complete its sham-controlled US trial. But the technology’s early promise, along with the sheer size of the opportunity and the acute unmet need, clearly have peaked the interest of investors, manufacturers, and physicians alike, all of whom are chasing after what one participant has called “the next biggest thing in cardiology.”

Despite widespread and increasing prevalence, atrial fibrillation has frustrated clinicians, device companies, and investors, resulting in only a small number of doctors treating a small number of patients. Ablation Frontiers believes its system will finally enable many more doctors to treat all types of AF patients because it is developing products and procedures that are simpler for doctors to use and perform, finally providing a broad-based solution to this rapidly growing market.

The atrial fibrillation market has attracted the attention of a large number of established and emerging cardiovascular device companies over the past several years, all hoping to cash in on the huge demand for a simple, safe, and effective therapy that can permanently cure this common, and often debilitating, heart arrhythmia. Most of the research to date has focused on energy-based methods both surgical and percutaneous - to destroy aberrant electrical triggers in the heart that are believed to initiate and perpetuate AF. But no one has yet received FDA approval for a catheter-based ablation tool, a milestone that is widely recognized as key to full penetration of this market. To be sure, they have come close. But obtaining an FDA indication for the more complex AF ablation procedure has proven a much more difficult goal.

Catheter ablation dominated the biannual EuroPACE meeting held in Lisbon at the end of June. In addition to the range of manual catheter ablation systems, remote catheter navigation and mapping also attracted large audiences.