Is anyone still here? Big News today Tristar Approved by FDA:
Guidant shares kick-started TRISTAR gets FDA marketing approval
By Debra McGarry, CBS MarketWatch
Last Update: 3:40 PM ET Dec 23, 1999
NewsWatch
INDIANAPOLIS, IN. (CBS.MW) -- Guidant Corp. shares got a 12 percent kick-start Thursday after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration cleared the way for U.S. marketing of its clogged arteries treatment.Shares of the No.2 maker of cardiac rhythm devices (GDT: news, msgs), behind Medtronic, advanced 5 1/2 to close at 50 3/4 on volume of 2.26 million shares. Guidant makes cardioverter defibrillators and pacemakers to detect and treat irregular heartbeats. The company's products are used for cardiac rhythm management, vascular intervention and other forms of cardiac vascular surgery.
The Indianapolis, In.-based company's TRISTAR coronary stent systems were launched in Europe in September and in November accounted for 75 percent of Guidant's European stent sales. Coronary stents are metal tubes that support coronary arteries and hold them together. These stents are often used in conjunction with angioplasty. More than 1.5
million patients worldwide were treated with an intervention procedure such as angioplasty in 1999. Nearly two-thirds of those procedures used at least one stent.
TRISTAR, which succeeds Guidant's ACS multi-link Duet coronary stent system, is used in first-time blockages and recurring blockage lesions in coronary arteries.
"Several new technologies have allowed us to create a significantly advanced stent system that we believe will enhance the ability of interventional cardiologists to effectively treat their patients," stated Ginger L. Graham, president of Guidant's Vascular Intervention Group. See press release.
Guidant's 12 percent jump help lifted The CBOE Health Care S&P Index
($HCX: news, msgs) up 2.9 percent. |
