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Biotech / Medical : Boston Scientific (BSX) Any Comments??? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: OldAIMGuy who wrote (486)	9/17/1998 4:51:00 PM
From: yard_man	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 798

OLD NEWS: Boston Scientific slips on stent problems By Kevin Drawbaugh CHICAGO, Sept 17 (Reuters) - Medical devices maker Boston Scientific Corp. continued to lose ground Thursday on market uncertainty about technical problems associated with its new NIR stent system for unclogging coronary arteries. The company could not be reached for comment, but analysts said it has acknowledged that there have been failures in a small number of its ''NIR on Ranger with SOX'' systems for coronary stenting since their U.S. debut last month. ''They say the incidence of problems is less than 1 percent, but even that can be a large number,'' said Sanjiv Arora, industry analyst at Dain Rauscher in Minneapolis. ''People are still wondering ... what happens if SOX gets recalled. The inkling is that it won't, but it's not clear at this point,'' said Arora, whose firm hosted a conference this week where Boston Scientific made a presentation. Since Aug. 12, when the NIR got U.S. Food and Drug Administration marketing clearance, the stent has had ''phenomenal'' sales uptake, Arora said. Yet, over the same period, the company's stock price has dropped more than 11 percent. Late on Thursday, it was down 1 at 66 on the New York Stock Exchange. Over the same period, the Morgan Stanley Healthcare Product index was up slightly over 1 percent. The composite of 25 leading U.S. medical technology stocks has rallied, with some pullbacks, all this month, while St. Jude has declined. At the conference, Dain reported that Boston Scientific chief financial officer Larry Best ''addressed the issue of balloon failures with the NIR ON Ranger with SOX delivery system ... (and) cannot quantify what is causing the problem.'' Stents are small, wire-mesh tubes that surgeons use to reinforce the inner walls of coronary blood vessels weakened by disease. The $2.1-billion stent market is growing at 10 to 15 percent a year and had been dominated by Guidant Corp. (NYSE:GDT - news), Arterial Vascular Engineering Inc. (Nasdaq:AVEI - news) and Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ - news) until last month's NIR launch. ''The market's reception of the (NIR) has, not surprisingly, been very strong,'' said Michael Mullen, medical technology analyst at SG Cowen. The NIR's technical problem appears to involve the SOX delivery system that surgeons use to insert the NIR into the body, and to be limited in scope, said Steven Halper, medical technology analyst at Donaldson Lufkin & Jenrette. Dain said that Best told investors, ''Boston has not seen a reduction in reorder rates for the delivery system ... The company currently does not have plans to recall the product.'' Best reportedly said the company has stopped the sales roll-out to new surgical centers of the NIR in the ''ON Ranger with SOX'' configuration. Centers that already have that set-up will be allowed to use it, but those that do not will only be permitted to use the NIR ''ON Ranger'' without SOX, Dain said. The company suspects that cardiologists may be causing the SOX failures by pushing the system beyond its design limits in the operating room, Best told investors at the conference.