Boston Scientific wins FDA approval for Liberte stent – One that conforms to the shape of the artery

Ok, one more stent approval, one thing for sure this technology is moving rapidly and the advancement of drug coated stents certainly seems to be the choice and studies are showing a low infection rate with their use. They are not cheap, around 13k in round figures. This is how you keep track of the tiny expensive devices, with RFID tags. You can see the page at Boston Scientific to see how many are listed on their product page. As medications are getting very specific, so do devices too.

Fact is we need those to save lives so as patients we are in luck as they keep getting better. The marketing and competition is fierce though. I saw a post over at Paul Levy’s blog about a J and J ad for one he happened to see at the airport, so who knows we might see more advertisements about “getting to know your stent”. I believe in being the informed patient, but I don’t really think the average person has to go this far at all times. I am starting to see some devices advertised on television too here and there, but not stents yet.

I do have to say when I did the interview with Dr. Muhs from Yale, I did learn a lot, but again that is me and even myself I don’t think at the time of surgery that I would be wanting make sure I had a certain brand as I would rely on the doctor to make that choice. The one thing most important that I did learn is that you want an interventional cardiologist/radiologist doing the procedure. Read the interview at the link and it will tell you a bit more. You might also want to reference an interview I did with Cook Medical about the interventional business department they have and it will lend a little additional information too.

Boston Scientific also makes heart defibrillators too that wirelessly connect and report data, one more company with a smart medical device ready to send data. From that side of the market I hope they connect with a PHR soon for those wanting or requiring their doctor to monitor, as devices continue to grow and come on the market, we need a place to have centralized data captured, the personal health record is the spot, otherwise he/she won’t have the time to tend to many different manufacturers and their software. More from the press release below: BD

BOSTON (MarketWatch) -- Boston Scientific Corp. said early Wednesday that the Food and Drug Administration has approved its Taxus Liberte Atom drug-coated coronary stent. The product is used to treat blockages in small coronary blood vessels. Boston Scientific also markets another product to treat small vessels called the Taxus Express Atom Stent. The company hopes to launch the Liberte Atom in the U.S. next month.

"The launch of our TAXUS Liberte stent system represents another milestone in the field of drug-eluting stents," said Jim Tobin, President and Chief Executive Officer of Boston Scientific. "It is the first drug-eluting coronary stent system to incorporate a next-generation stent. By combining our new Liberte stent with our ground-breaking TAXUS technology, we will now provide physicians the latest, state-of-the-art drug-eluting stent technology for the treatment of coronary artery disease."

The Company received the CE Mark for the bare metal Liberte stent system in December 2003 and plans to launch the TAXUS (drug-eluting) Liberte system in Europe later this year. In the U.S., Boston Scientific has announced enrollment in the ATLAS clinical trial, a pivotal study designed to support U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval of the TAXUSLiberte stent system. Boston Scientific's first-generation drug-eluting stent system, the TAXUS™ Express2™ paclitaxel-eluting coronary stent system, is the worldwide leader in the coronary stent market.

http://www.ptca.org/press_rel/20050117pr_boston.html

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