With strong one-year results from the PULSAR trial, Kardium Inc. could soon be jockeying for third place in the race for pulsed field ablation market share. Boston Scientific Corp. clearly won the roses, with Medtronic plc solidly positioned to place, but the show spot – previously called as a battle between Johnson & Johnson and Abbott Laboratories – could go to this Canadian dark horse.
Presentations at Heart Rhythm 2025 for Field Medical Inc. and Adagio Medical Holdings Inc. demonstrated success in two very different types of ablation for ventricular tachycardia, potentially offering new options for a harder-to-treat type of arrhythmia.
Pulsed field ablation dominated discussions and scientific sessions at Heart Rhythm 2025 in San Diego with researchers and manufacturers touting new applications in persistent atrial fibrillation, atrial flutter and addressing specific challenges for existing systems.
Growth in the first quarter for Boston Scientific Corp.’s blockbuster products, Farapulse and Watchman, pushed the company well over analysts’ expectations and gave management confidence to raise its guidance for the year to 15% to 17% up from 12.4% to 14.5%, despite a projected $200 million in tariff impacts.
Field Medical Inc. reaped $40 million in its series A fundraising via $20 million in new capital and conversion of $20 million in seed-round debt to support development of its next-generation pulsed field ablation technology. Field Medical’s Fieldforce ablation system targets ventricular tachycardia as its initial use, but also has a study in process for atrial fibrillation.
Pulsed field ablation using Boston Scientific Corp.’s Farapulse system was non-inferior and even superior, slightly, to Medtronic plc’s Artic Front Advance cardiac cryoablation system in treating patients with paroxysmal atrial fibrillation.
Abbott Laboratories snagged a CE mark for its Volt pulsed field ablation catheter for atrial fibrillation several months earlier than the mid-year approval expected. The Abbott Park, Ill.-based company has begun Volt’s commercial launch with the physicians who participated in its European clinical trials and plans to expand to other users on the continent in the second half of 2025.
With its Altix AI.i launch, GE Healthcare Technologies Inc. aims to upgrade the user experience and efficiency of its catheterization lab and electrophysiology procedures. The new capabilities apply to the Cardiolab, Mac-Lab and Combolab products. The Alitx Ai.i software upgrades received U.S. FDA clearance in December. CE mark is pending.
Boston Scientific Corp. recently received CE mark for its navigation-enabled Farawave Nav ablation catheter and Faraview mapping software to be used with its Farapulse pulsed field ablation (PFA) system. The technologies are expected to improve physicians’ understanding of patients’ atrial fibrillation to enable treatment using the Farapulse PFA system.
As pulsed field ablation transformed the electrophysiology market over the last year, Boston Scientific Corp. emerged as the biggest winner by far. In its fourth quarter earnings call on Wednesday, the company quantified just how successful its Farapulse PFA system has been.
