For this product, made for patients with severe heart failure due to ischemic heart disease, muscle tissue from the thigh of the patient is collected, and sheet-like cultured skeletal myoblasts are expanded and transplanted on the patient’s heart surface. Developed since 2007, seven clinical trials where successfully done in three domestic medical institutions since 2012 and completed in 2014.
Terumo press release, Sept. 18, 2015
MHLW approves the production and sales of “heart sheet” by Terumo Co., the world’s first cell product to treat heart failure