ALEXANDRIA, Va., July 16 -- United States Patent no. 12,667,455, issued on June 30, was assigned to Symetis SA (Ecublens, Switzerland).
"Method and apparatus for compressing/loading stent-valves" was invented by Jacques Essinger (St-Prex, Switzerland), Stephane Delaloye (Bulach, Switzerland), Jean-Luc Hefti (Cheaseaux-Noreaz, Switzerland), Luc Mantanus (Lausanne, Switzerland) and Michael Paris (Prilly, Switzerland).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "Apparatus (40) for compressing a transcatheter cardiac stent-valve (10) comprises: a hollow channel (42) having an interior surface (50) shaped for progressively compressing the stent-valve in response to longitudinal advancement of the stent-valve wit...