Boston Scientific gets boost in stent race
Terry Fiedler
Star Tribune
Published Sep 25 2001
Boston Scientific Corporation's new drug-coated stent has
proven completely effective in keeping coronary arteries from
reclogging, according to a study released Monday at the
company's SciMed division in Maple Grove.
The results position Natick, Mass.-based Boston Scientific as a
major player in the high-potential market for drug-coated
stents.
"It's a small study, but the results are great," said U.S. Bancorp
Piper Jaffray analyst Thomas Gunderson. "This is clearly an
indication that they are in a strong second position" behind
Johnson & Johnson.
It's also good news for the company's SciMed division. It
employs 2,800 people, most of them in Minnesota.
The SciMed division is responsible for the development of
cardiovascular products such as angioplasty catheters -- used
to open clogged arteries -- and coronary stents, tiny metal
tubes that keep arteries propped open.
The company also announced the European launch of a stent
called the Express.
The company's stock gained $2.10 Monday to $20.60 a share.
Shares in Eden Prairie-based Surmodics Inc., which makes
products that bond drugs to Johnson & Johnson's new stents, fell
$3.63 to $35.37 each. Boston Scientific has its own bonding
polymer.
Boston Scientific said it probably would introduce the
drug-coated stents in Europe in 2002 and domestically in 2003.
Coronary stents are a $2.3 billion market now, but Gunderson
estimated the market for drug-coated stents will reach $4
billion by 2005. Johnson & Johnson's drug-coated stent is
expected to be on the U.S. market first, in early 2003.
Gunderson said J&J has a 10-to 12-month development lead
over Boston Scientific and Guidant Corp., which is marketing
the stent of its partner, Cook Inc. Fridley-based Medtronic Inc.
lags behind those competitors.
Boston Scientific has worldwide co-exclusive rights from a
Canadian company, Angiotech Pharmaceuticals, to coat its
stents with paclitaxel. Paclitaxel is the active component of the
cancer drug Taxol, and also is used on the Guidant stent.
The 61-person study -- 30 of them in the control group --
showed that a group treated with Boston Scientific's
paclitaxel-coated stents showed no reclogging of coronary
arteries in a six-month followup. The bare-stent control group
had a reclosure rate of 11 percent.
-- Terry Fiedler is at tfiedler@startribune.com .
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