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Biotech / Medical : JNJ-Super company, Super stock! -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: David Lawrence who wrote (472)	1/9/2004 2:54:23 PM
From: muddphudd	Respond to of 552

With regards to Guidant and Medtronic: CHICAGO, Jan 6 (Reuters) - J.P. Morgan on Tuesday named cardiovascular device makers Guidant Corp. (NYSE:GDT - News) and St. Jude Medical Inc. (NYSE:STJ - News) its top 2004 stock picks for the medical technology sector, sending shares of both companies up by more than 5 percent. Analyst Michael Weinstein in an investment report picked St. Jude Medical, powered by new heart failure therapies set to launch shortly, as its top choice for the first half of the year. He also selected St. Jude as an attractive acquisition target in 2004, naming Boston Scientific Corp. (NYSE:BSX - News) and Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ - News) as likely suitors as both companies look to offset decelerating growth in 2005 and beyond. St. Jude's shares gained $3.67, or 6.13 percent, to $63.55 on the New York Stock Exchange (News - Websites) . St. Jude shares have risen by more than 60 percent since the end of last January. Weinstein chose Guidant as his long-haul winner, based on the company's revenue potential in heart failure therapies and its growth potential in drug-coated stents, sending Guidant's shares up $3.06, or 5 percent, to $64.12 on the NYSE. Guidant shares touched $64.64, their highest level in more than three years, earlier Tuesday. Guidant shares have risen by more than 120 percent since Jan. 7, 2003. Guidant, the market leader in sales of conventional stents used to keep arteries clear, has fallen behind in the development of the industry's newest treatment -- drug-coated stents. The tiny wire mesh tubes are coated with drugs to keep arteries treated with stents from reclogging with scar tissue. Weinstein predicts the coronary stent market will reach $6 billion by 2006, with drug-coated stents contributing $5.2 billion of that total. That compares with a total market of $2.4 billion in 2002. Johnson & Johnson launched its drug-coated version in the United States in 2003, and Boston Scientific is expected to launch its product early this year, followed by Medtronic Inc. (NYSE:MDT - News) in late 2005. Guidant won't be on the U.S. market with a drug-coated stent until early 2006, but once it does launch, Weinstein believes the company will gain market share quickly. "Guidant's entry into the drug-eluting stent market should have a major impact on the company's earnings outlook," he wrote in the report. Assuming Guidant's product works, he expects Guidant to claim a 20 percent to 25 percent share of the market. Meanwhile, he expects Guidant will continue to generate significant revenue from its cardiac rhythm management division helped by pacemakers and defibrillators designed to treat heart failure.