Engineered into every beat

Biocompatible materials like our medical polyurethanes can help you improve the durability and overall effectiveness of structural heart solutions – including catheter-based therapies like heart valve repair and replacement.

This also extends to use in transcatheter heart valve replacement (aortic, mitral, and tricuspid), LAAO (Left Atrial Appendage Occlusion); and mitral/tricuspid valve repair (through clips or annuloplasty). 

We can also support you in enhancing minimally invasive procedures with the industry’s highest strength, lowest profile Ultra High Molecular Weight Polyethylene (UHMWPE) fibers for sutures and medical textiles.

For fast healing of puncture sites following vascular interventions, our fully resorbable collagen materials are an ideal choice. These naturally derived biomaterials are used for access vessel sealing post-catheterization (for example, in the SFA) to provide rapid hemostasis, thus lowering intraprocedural bleeding.

In fact, dsm-firmenich Biomedical is a pioneer in this field, having created the Angio-Seal more than 25 years ago. Created from a trusted collagen source, it is available in multiple shapes and sizes, including a plug or patch.

We know that creating differentiated solutions in this highly competitive market is paramount. Our advanced biomaterials for catheter-based therapies can help you achieve this.

For example, our hydrophilic lubricious coatings are ideal for both catheters and their various accessory devices, including guidewires and introducer sheaths used in procedures like cardiac ablation, coronary atherectomy, and intravascular imaging via IVUS or OCT. 

These materials are also a good choice for use in coronary and peripheral angioplasty and stenting; balloon valvuloplasty; and cardiac catheterization. In fact, our coating technology is particularly well suited for tortuous parts of the anatomy.

Finally, if you’re striving to achieve increased device miniaturization in delivery and retrieval catheters, our UHMWPE fiber portfolio is an ideal solution: it can be incorporated as a tendon or cable for mechanical steering.

In the drive to create less invasive cardiac assist devices that optimize cardiac function, we support you with a range of hemocompatible and durable biomaterials. These medical grade materials are ideal for multiple-component applications that require safe and effective long-term implantation in the body, including LVADs and other ventricular assist devices.
We also support further innovation in this application – for example through the creation of leadless digital technologies in headers, pumps, and coating electronics. The excellent processability of our medical polyurethanes enable the precision molding and coating of these parts.

Our incredibly small, soft, yet strong biomaterials push technological boundaries. For example, our medical polyurethanes are an ideal solution for neurovascular procedures that require a small microcatheter for delivery access.

Today, our flexible biocompatible and biostable materials are used in embolization via coiling, carotid artery angioplasty, ECR, endovascular stenting, and DBS. This includes applications for revascularization and thrombectomy procedures, embolization, deep brain stimulation, and neuromodulation.

Our experts can also customize and combine our materials to support neurovascular treatments even further. For example, our polyurethanes can be coated with our thin yet durable coatings to meet demanding performance requirements in implantable devices.

The ability for our medical grade biomaterials to deliver high strength at low profiles is helping to advance the treatment of blood circulation disorders of the heart and brain in peripheral stents and stent grafts. 

One example is our Ultra High Molecular Weight Polyethylene (UHMWPE) membrane – which can perform in small vessels in a way that PET simply cannot match; and offers a more sustainable alternative to expanded polytetrafluorethylene (ePTFE) in these applications.

We can seamlessly combine biomaterials in our portfolio to support improved performance in interventions including - peripheral atherectomy or angioplasty with a DCB, IVL, PFA, and balloon embolectomy. Just one example of this is our high-strength UHMWPE fiber – which provides an ideal solution for crossing very small and often heavily calcified vessels with the smallest DCBs. 

Our durable hydrophilic coatings are another ideal solution for peripheral vascular applications. With long-lasting lubricity and low particulate release, they are based on a universal ready-to-use chemistry, and are compatible with a wide variety of devices.

Sustained release drug delivery is an ideal solution for these applications, through the use of our biodegradable polyester-amide (PEA) technology. This highly tunable material is compatible with even the most challenging APIs used in neurovascular therapies.