FDA approves Abiomed's heart pump Impella, shares rise

(Reuters) - Medical device maker Abiomed Inc (ABMD.O) said U.S. health regulators approved the sale of its heart pump, Impella 2.5, driving its shares up about 24 percent to their highest in more than six years.

Impella 2.5, which Abiomed said is the world's smallest heart pump, is approved in the United States for partial circulatory support in critical patients for up to six hours.

The approval by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration allows Abiomed to begin selling the device to an estimated 14,000 interventional cardiologists at about 1,700 heart hospitals in the United States.

The company said the device is now approved in more than 40 countries and has been used to treat more than 1,500 patients outside the United States.

Shares of the Danvers, Massachusetts-based company were trading up $1.96 at $16.74 in midday trade on Nasdaq. They touched a high of $18.28 earlier in the session.

(Reporting by Suzannah Benjamin in Bangalore; Editing by Himani Sarkar)