Abbott's "Xience" Stent Achieves Goals in Clinical Trial

A clinical study has shown Abbott Laboratories' "Xience," a drug-coated stent, to be more effective than Boston Scientific's Taxus device. This result clears Abbott to seek FDA approval for the Xience. Drug-coated stents have come under scrutiny recently for possibly contributing to blood clots. The Xience is designed to dissolve inside the body after about three years, unlike the stents of Boston Scientific and Johnson & Johnson, which remain in the body permanently. Abbott is now planning to file for FDA approval in Q2 in the hope of marketing the device in the $3 billion U.S. stent market in H1 2008. The Xience performed better than the Taxus in the primary goal of the trial, which was the prevention of renarrowing of artieries. It also outperformed the Taxus in its secondary goal, the avoidance of heart attacks and death. The Xience's success will benefit Boston Scientific to a degree, since that company's purchase of Guidant Corp. last year gave it the right to market the Xience under a different name (Promus). In related news, the results of the seven-year "Courage" study of bare-metal (non-drug-coated) stents are to be released tomorrow. The study concludes that the stents do not avert heart attacks or death. Stent manufacturers contend that the study is inherently flawed, since stents are not intended to prevent either of those events; they are designed solely to alleviate the symptoms of heart disease.

Sources: MarketWatch, CNN.com, Bloomberg, Wall Street Journal (I, II)
Commentary: Biotechs Develop New Generation of Drug-Eluted Stents • Abbott Labs, Johnson & Johnson: Healthy, Wealthy and Wise • Wall Street Cautious Over Drug-Coated Stent Risks
Stocks/ETFs to watch: Abbott Laboratories Inc. (ABT) Boston Scientific (BSX). Competitors: Pfizer Inc. (PFE), Johnson & Johnson (JNJ), Medtronic, Inc. (MDT). ETFs: Pharmaceutical HOLDRs (PPH), iShares Dow Jones US Pharmaceuticals (IHE), PowerShares Dynamic Pharmaceuticals (PJP)

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