Cardianove Uses CATIA to Remove Two Years From Development Time of Life-Saving Heart Pump for $2.5 Billion Heart Transplant Market.

Business, Health & Technology Editors

MONTREAL--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 30, 2001

Goal is to create a temporary solution for heart transplant patients

Cardianove Inc., announced today it has designed the world's smallest life-saving heart pump using advanced software from IBM and Dassault Systemes (Nasdaq:DASTY; Euronext Paris: #13065, DSY.PA) that shaved two years off the normal development schedule.

The CATIA Solutions computer-aided design software was also used to run complex three-dimensional simulations to help ensure that the miniature device will meet requirements when testing begins early next year. If the tests are successful, cardiac surgeons throughout the world would place the fingertip-sized pump, (22 mm in diameter), inside human hearts to provide breathing relief and to extend the life of patients waiting for transplants. It is estimated that there are more than 4,100 people waiting for heart transplants in the United States.

Time is of the essence because the United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS) says that nearly 8,500 patents have died waiting for heart transplants since 1988 in the United States. The speed, virtual simulation and precision of the computer simulations have given the team of Cardianove engineers and cardiac transplant surgeons that developed the pump the confidence that it will not only work, but assurances that it can be manufactured to the necessary tolerances.

The pump will be machined out of titanium with blades that are only 100 microns thick (a human hair is about 50 microns), which turns at 10,000-12,000 rotations per minute (RPM). It is powered by a small external battery that sends a tiny electrical current directly through the skin without the need for wires. Cardianove is aiming to have the revolutionary heart pump ready and approved for human application within four years. Its goal is to develop a more permanent implant with a functional life of 10 years or longer.

The project was conceived at the Montreal Heart Institute, a highly specialized cardiology research university hospital, where doctors required a small pump to assist patients with failing hearts. The Institute contacted the Ecole Polytechnique de Montreal, a leading Canadian engineering university, and its professor of general mechanics and CATIA instructor, Andre Garon, to assist in the project. Garon, a co-founder of Cardianove Inc., formed a team of a dozen engineers and graduate students familiar with CATIA Solutions. Their objective was to design and model an auxiliary pump that can be inserted directly into the left ventricle of damaged hearts. After only 36 months, two years less than the time typically needed for the development of similar devices, the Cardianove team unveiled its miniature heart pump.

Once inserted into the heart, the pump can help prolong the life expectancy of patients with advanced congestive heart failure due coronary artery disease or cardiomyopathy; or act as a temporary solution for people awaiting heart transplants, or for post-operative patients whose hearts need assistance until they recover and can function on their own.

"After we completed the computer model, we used CATIA's numerical control (NC) functions to quickly create a prototype, and used CFX fluid dynamic software to determine if we could cut the parts to spec and predict how they would behave in actual operation in the human body. CATIA allowed us to use the latest in 3D modeling to explore over 100 virtual prototypes, and to machine the top three candidates," said Garon.

For the design and solid modeling of the pump, Cardianove engineers used CATIA Version 4 in conjunction with fluid dynamics software, all running on five IBM RS/6000 UNIX workstations. CATIA's NC commands were essential in the production of the design, which required a very high degree of precision to enable the lab to machine the small parts out of titanium.

Carlo Ranfagni, IBM director of small and medium worldwide sales, IBM Product Lifecycle Management, said "Cardianove's application illustrates the versatility of CATIA, and its flexible capabilities for the rapid development of products of any type, for any industry and in any size company."

Philippe Forestier, executive vice president, sales and marketing, Dassault Systemes, adds, "CATIA delivers accurate digital product representation, crucial to part and device architecture decisions as well as meeting stringent safety, quality and regulation standards. We are extremely excited CATIA is contributing to the progress of the medical industry."

The heart pump will be manufactured at the Centre Prototech of the Ecole Polytechnique de Montreal. In addition to concentrating on this heart pump, Cardianove, with backing from venture capitalists, plans on using its expertise in hydrodynamics to develop other pumps for medical care in areas, including extra-corporeal perfusion or slow continuous drug infusion.

Dassault Systemes develops CATIA, IBM's Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) business unit and IBM Business Partners worldwide market, sell and support it.

About Cardianove, Inc.

Cardianove is an emerging technology Company, founded in 1997 by a group of 7 inventors in partnership with two leading teaching institutions, the Montreal Heart Institute and the Ecole Polytechnique. The Company based in Montreal, Canada, is dedicated to the development of a unique miniature ventricular assist device to support the failing heart. This enclosed-impeller axial-flow pump is designed to be totally implanted inside the left ventricle; its integrated miniature DC electric motor is powered remotely and no direct connections through the skin are needed.

These features offer the patients greater autonomy and better quality of life. Using its pioneering technology, the Company will develop other applications of this miniature pump system for human care. Dr. Conrad Pelletier, a cardiac surgeon, is the CEO of the Company, and Andre Garon PhD is the senior research scientist. e-mail addresses: [e-mail] ; [e-mail]

About IBM

IBM is the world's largest information technology company, with 80 years of leadership in helping businesses innovate. IBM Sales & Distribution, which supports more than a dozen key industries worldwide, works with companies of all sizes around the world to deploy the full range of IBM technologies. The fastest way to get more information about IBM is through the IBM homepage at http://www.ibm.com

About Dassault Systemes

Dassault Systemes (Nasdaq: DASTY; Euronext Paris: #13065, DSY.PA) is the premier global software developer for the CAD/CAM/CAE/PLM market, providing companies with e-business solutions to implement their digital enterprise, thus creating and simulating the entire product life cycle from initial concept to product in service. CATIA, ENOVIA and DELMIA solutions support industry-specific business processes to help unleash creativity and innovation, reduce development cycle time, improve quality, competitiveness and shareholder value: CATIA supports the digital product definition and simulation, DELMIA provides solutions to define and simulate lean digital manufacturing processes and ENOVIA delivers enterprise solutions that manage a comprehensive, collaborative and distributed model of the digital product, processes and resources. The combined integration creates the Digital Product life cycle Pipeline, supporting reuse of corporate knowledge. SolidWorks and SmartSolutions, as Dassault Systemes companies, offer respectively 3D design-centric and TeamPDM software solutions based on Windows. Spatial, also part of Dassault Systemes family, is a market-leading provider of world-class 3D software components and services (for 3D modeling, visualization, and interoperability) to meet the requirements of 3D in Internet-based e-commerce and B2B applications. Information about Dassault Systemes is available at http://www.dsweb.com