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Biotech / Medical : Guidant (GDT) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: LevelHeaded who wrote (85)	1/31/1998 11:47:00 AM
From: AARON DIDICH	Respond to of 235

LevelHeaded: I can't answer your question directly as I am an anesthesiolgist in a hospital that does not perform the procedure. I previously posted my views on the rapid acceptance and use of the Multi-Link stent based on an article to heads up the thread in advance of last weeks Goldman upgrade of the size and market impact of these devices. It has taken them over a month to spread the word. The article was published in HEALTH INDUSTRY TODAY put out by The Business Word in the December 1997 issue available at $30/copy. The salient points mentioned, and keep in mind the date of the article are: "estimated 400,000 stent procedures performed annually worldwide, about half of those in this country, JNJ has profited enormously from sales of the tiny wire mesh products used..." "In the US at least, JNJ has pretty much had its way with the coronary stent, which has been selling for about $1,600 each..." "Guidant which received FDA clearance for its ACS Multi-Link stent product in early October, just 113 days after it electronically filed its pre-market approval application in June. One jubilant Guidant representative told Health Industry Today that his company was selling an astonishing $4 million worth of the Multi-Link stents each day since the product was released on October 2." These are phenominal numbers and that is why I have said that the upcoming earnings will be great. IBD ran articles on AVEI and discussed their penetration of Europe after two years of going against JNJ and I am sure the heat is on in their corporate offices with the above numbers and now AVEI coming to market. I have previously likened future outcome of earnings based on the cataract market and constraints placed on hospitals by Medicare and HMO's to lower prices. The stents will face the same onslaught, first as a wedge by competitors to gain entry and then once a status quo is reached and the flood of blood in the streets turns to a trickle, the reimbursement issue will start hacking away at margins. This is akin to the concept of hospice programs which received a nice daily allowance for treating patients at home, which saved carriers millions of dollars in hospital bills. Once established, they started to whittle reimbursement. Don't overlook establishment of regional centers of specialization where patients will be told to go to center A instead of your hospital because...... Just my two cents, would welcome some real field reports from interventional cardiologists/surgeons if you are out there. Aaron