(News Bulletin 247) – The designer of the Aeson artificial heart has announced an improvement to the software of its prosthesis which will make it possible to detect potential malfunctions in real time.

Carmat will probably end 2023 on a good note on the stock market. The designer of the artificial heart Aeson rose 8.4% around 11:30 a.m. this Friday, December 29, the last session of the year.

The stock’s rise follows a technological advancement shared by the company Thursday evening. Carmat has announced an improvement to the software accompanying its prosthesis and which strengthens the safety profile of its artificial heart.

Concretely, this software will now be able to detect in real time the signals of possible Aeson operating faults. “The software will then immediately adapt the control of the prosthesis so that its performance is not affected, and that patient support is not impacted,” explains the company.

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A sales peak of 750 million euros?

Carmat intends to first deploy these changes in hearts currently implanted in patients via a software update before integrating them into the production process of Aeson prostheses, after obtaining regulatory authorizations.

“Now, for many potential malfunctions related to electronic components of the prosthesis, Aeson’s software will automatically ‘correct’ these defects by appropriately adapting the operation of the prosthesis, so that patient support is not impacted”, declared Stéphane Piat, the general director of Carmat, quoted in a press release.

At the beginning of the month, Carmat announced the commissioning of a second production building on its Bois-d’Arcy site, which will allow it to reach a production capacity of 500 cores at the start of next year. artificial per year. The group then plans to increase to 1000 by 2027.

In a note published at the end of October, Degroof Petercam estimated Aeson’s peak sales at around 750 million euros (for comparison, Carmat’s first half 2023 turnover was almost zero at 600,000 euros, and then corresponded to the sale of three Aeson cores). The Belgian bank then had a purchase recommendation on the stock and a target of 20.5 euros, while Carmat shares are currently trading around 5 euros.

Furthermore, Carmat should probably find additional sources of financing in the coming weeks. In mid-October, the group completed a capital increase of 7 million euros with several historic shareholders. But this call to the market only ensured its financial horizon until the beginning of 2024.

The company then estimated that it would need to find around 65 million additional euros (an amount which includes the repayment of a tranche of a loan from the European Investment Bank in January) to continue its operation until end of October 2024.