CARMAT SAS, a Paris-based start-up developing an artificial heart for use in late-stage heart failure, announced that the European Commission has authorized the French state innovation agency Oséo to award €33 million in funding to its R&D program on the implantable device and the associated electrical supply and telediagnostic system. CARMAT SAS is leading the project, with support from four key industrial partners: Vignal Artru Industries (VAI), PaxiTech, Dédienne Santé and HEF R&D.

The five year Carmat R&D program has a total eligible budget of €74 million. The €33 million in public funding will primarily go to CARMAT itself (€31,9 million, including €14.5 million as a refundable advance).

Paris-based CARMAT was created in June 2008 and financed by Truffle Capital , the European Aeronautic Defence and Space Agency (EADS) and the Fondation Alain Carpentier, with additional funding from the French state innovation agency OSEO. The company was spun out of a collaboration between the renowned surgeon Professor Alain Carpentier and EADS which focuses on using biomaterials and cutting-edge aerospatial technologies in the construction of an artificial heart. CARMAT intends to market a fully implantable artificial heart to the  hundreds of thousands of patients who have either suffered a massive heart attack or have late-stage heart failure and for whom standard drug therapy, ventricular assistance and/or a heart transplant have failed or are not possible.