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Biocore Aortic Valve From St. Jude Medical

Written By: Adam Pick, Patient Advocate, Author & Website Founder
Page Last Updated: July 15, 2025

As you may have seen at HeartValveSurgery.com, we are continuously providing updates about the different types of surgical and transcatheter heart valve replacements.

Over the past few months, I have met with several heart valve replacement manufacturers to learn more about the latest and greatest innovations in heart valve performance and durability. Needless to say, I am learning a lot about the new technologies and the old faithfuls of the industry.

One of the tissue valve replacement types that I used to receive questions about is the Biocore Aortic Valve from St. Jude Medical.

As you may have seen, St. Jude Medical previously received FDA approval for its Epic Stented Valve. It's interesting to note that the Epic Stented Valve is built upon the architecture of the Biocore Aortic Valve. You should also know that St. Jude Medical was purchased by Abbott Laboratories on January 4, 2017. Given this acquisition and potential "phase-out" of the Biocore product, it appears that Abbott is now solely marketing the Epic product. (Fyi, I did not see any references to the Biocore valve on Abbott's website.)

That said, here is some more information about the original Biocore valve that was previously made and sold by St. Jude Medical:

The first research note to make is that the Biocore Aortic Valve had been around for a long, long, long, long time. There is clinical data on the Biocore valve going back 20 years.
It should also be noted that the Biocore is not just for aortic position replacement. The Biocore valve can also be fit for mitral valve replacement as well.
The Biocore valve uses a porcine valve tissue. For those unfamiliar with the term porcine, that means it is a pig valve replacement.

I hope that helps explain a little more about the Biocore valve by St. Jude Medical which I believe is now called the "Epic" valve and is made by Abbott.

Written by Adam Pick - Patient & Website Founder

Adam Pick is a heart valve patient and author of The Patient's Guide To Heart Valve Surgery. In 2006, Adam founded HeartValveSurgery.com to educate and empower patients. This award-winning website has helped over 10 million people fight heart valve disease. Adam has been featured by the American Heart Association and Medical News Today.

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