Two Valves for China

Abstract

CarboMedics response to the St. Jude Medical litigation was to design two concepts that were similar to the St. Jude Medical prosthesis design but without infringing upon it. Early on, Professor Ned HC Hwang joined our effort. CarboMedics’s plan was to gain approval in the Western developed world and then negotiate a joint venture with China. To enhance our marketing expertise, Rolland Siegel, because of his extensive marketing experience, was solicited. By mid-1986, all of the pre-clinical testing of the CarboMedics prosthesis in Europe had been completed. On December 18, 1986, in Paris, France, Professor J Y Neveux implanted the first human implant. After extensive excursions through China with the guidance of Professor Hwang and marketing savvy of Siegel, CarboMedics was ready to finalize the negotiation of a joint venture with China at a meeting in Hong Kong.