60 Years of Saving Lives – How the BIOTRONIK Mission Continues

2023 was a landmark year for BIOTRONIK – not simply in name or number – but in action. The company’s 60^th year of operations was a busy one for lifesaving innovations like the Amvia pacemaker and CRT-P family and Oscar catheter, to laying the groundwork for helping a whole new community of patients with the Prospera^TM spinal cord stimulation system, a BIOTRONIK first. As the company enters its seventh decade of service to the healthcare community, the team’s drive and capacity to save and improve lives around the world has never been higher.

“From developing the first German pacemaker to ICDs, resorbable scaffolds, multifunctional catheters and a new approach to manage spinal cord stimulation – we are proud of our 60 years of innovations,” comments Dr. Alexander Uhl, Chief Executive Officer at BIOTRONIK on the anniversary. “Our achievements and contributions to the medical community in 2023 are proof that we continue innovating medical technology to reduce physician burden and improve patient care.”

Although BIOTRONIK remains focused on the future, the last year has seen many big milestones in the company’s history, whether marking new innovations – or big milestones for existing ones.

The electrophysiology team marked one such milestone in 2023. Amidst the 60-year anniversary of the company, BIOTRONIK’s Electrophysiology team celebrated 20 years since the first GoldTip ablation catheter. The BIOTRONIK EP team recalled where the idea to use gold came from, and the clinical data supporting its use, in this previous blog post from June.

GoldTip remains a key part of BIOTRONIK's EP technology that continues to influence electrophysiological ablation procedures today. This shows how proven technology continues to find new applications to meet the needs of the future. 

BIOTROINK achieved a landmark moment in April 2023, which marked BIOTRONIK’s first major market approval in a new therapy area, with the American Food and Drug Administration approving the Prospera spinal cord stimulation (SCS) system.

The system combines daily remote monitoring and remote programming capabilities to tailor therapy to chronic intractable pain patients through SCS, helping to optimize therapy faster when patients need adjustments.

By using daily remote monitoring to identify therapy issues and intervene before they become a problem, the BIOTRONIK Neuro team aims to improve quality of life for chronic intractable pain patients and reduce therapy abandonment. Quite simply, we believe if a patient’s therapy can stay optimized on a daily basis, patients are more likely to stick with it.

“BIOTRONIK pioneered the ability to monitor patients remotely in cardiac rhythm management, enabling early detection and treatment of critical events. BIOTRONIK Neuro has built upon this technology to introduce a truly proactive patient-centric care ecosystem,” said BIOTRONIK Neuro President Todd Langevin.

BIOTRONIK has for years been focused on addressing patient’s physiologic pacing needs and this has progressed even further this year as we introduced the world’s first pacemaker and CRT-P family approved for Left Bundle Branch Area Pacing (LBBAP) – with Amvia family’s CE approval earlier in May.

LBBAP is a relatively new approach, but with researchers finding that it may provide a more physiologic and responsive pacing method to standard right ventricular pacing, the Research & Development team got to work, with functions aimed at making patients' hearts beat more naturally and making clinical workflows more efficient for practitioners. The Amvia family is the result of that work.

“Approval for LBBAP and integrated Closed Loop Stimulation makes the Amvia pacemaker family the next generation pacemakers to offer true physiological pacing to our patients,” said Prof. Jan De Pooter, Cardiology and Electrophysiology at the University Hospital Ghent at the time.

In August, a 68-year-old man in Belgium suffering from paroxysmal AV block became the first person in Europe to receive an Amvia family pacemaker, with attending physician Prof. De Pooter saying the implantation went on very smoothly.

“This significant milestone serves as a testament to our ongoing commitment to driving advancements in the cardiovascular market, even after 60 years. Our innovative solutions, such as the Amvia family, continue to improve the lives of patients worldwide,” Dr. Andreas Hecker, President CRM/EP at BIOTRONIK, said following the launch.

With the European launch of the Oscar (One Solution. Cross. Adjust. Restore) multifunctional peripheral catheter at the Leipzig Interventional Course (LINC) in June, BIOTRONIK’s vascular intervention unit marked a milestone – something 2023 wouldn’t be short of.

“The Oscar catheter undoubtedly reduced several procedural steps and device exchanges. The ability to dilate the full lesion length followed by focal areas of residual stenosis with the same balloon was a great benefit to my procedural flow,” said Prof. Christoph A. Binkert, MD, Chief of Interventional Radiology at Kantonsspital Winterthur in Winterthur, Switzerland, who performed the first commercial procedure using an Oscar device in Europe.

Even after 60 years, 2023 is proof that BIOTRONIK’s commitment to life-saving innovations that improve the quality of life is as strong now as it was when it pioneered the first German pacemaker 60 years ago. Marking our past milestones this year has helped us stay focused on our drive to innovate in the future, with many new patents in the pipeline coming for 2024 and beyond.