Thoratec Corporation is a United States-based company that develops, manufactures, and markets proprietary medical devices used for mechanical circulatory support for the treatment of heart-failure patients worldwide. It is a global leader in mechanical circulatory support devices, particularly in ventricular assist devices (VADs). For chronic circulatory support for late-stage heart-failure patients, Thoratec's primary product lines are its ventricular assist devices: the HeartMate 3 Left Ventricular Assist System (HeartMate 3), and the Thoratec Paracorporeal Ventricular Assist Device (PVAD). For acute circulatory support, the company's product lines are the CentriMag Acute Circulatory System (CentriMag); and for pediatric patients the PediMag Acute Circulatory System, known as PediVAS outside the U.S. Incorporated in 1976, Thoratec is headquartered in Pleasanton, California. In 2015 the company was acquired by St. Jude Medical, a global medical-device company headquartered in Saint Paul, Minnesota. In January 2017, St. Jude was acquired by Abbott Laboratories. History First decades Thoratec was incorporated in California in 1976 as Thoratec Laboratories Corporation. It completed its initial public offering (IPO) of stock in 1981, trading under the ticker "THOR". The company's efforts were focused on developing devices for circulatory support and vascular graft applications. It developed bypass grafts, which are artificial coronary conduits used in heart surgeries; and eventually also ventricular assist devices (VADs), heart-pump devices for people suffering from congestive heart failure. VADs are used in patients too old or ill for a heart transplant, or to keep a patient alive until a heart becomes available for transplantation surgery. In December 1995 Thoratec received FDA approval to sell its Thoratec Ventricular Assist Device System, an external blood pump with cannulae connecting the pump to the patient's heart and vessels. In 1996 this VADS was used in more than 750 patients, and Thoratec sold 285 of them in clinical trials for the FDA. Company revenues that year were $7.5million. In its early decades the company also developed Thoralon, a proprietary biocompatible material that minimizes blood clotting and inflammation. The material is currently used in the Thoratec PVAD pulsatile-flow biventricular device. By 2000, the Thoratec VAD System was the only device approved by the FDA for left, right, or biventricular support for both providing a bridge until heart transplant and for recovery of the heart after open-heart surgery. To expand and diversify its product line and capabilities, in 2001 Thoratec acquired Thermo Cardiosystems, a rival company three times its size and the developer of the