Abbott Laboratories opened up a new front in the long-running stent wars, with the official launch of its Xience Prime drug-eluting stent in Europe.
The announcement was made at the European Society of Cardiology Congress in Barcelona, Spain. Chicago-based Abbott received CE Mark approval for the device in June.
The latest version of the drug-eluting Xience platform competes head-to-head with products from Natick-based peer Boston Scientific, Johnson & Johnson and Medtronic Inc.
Abbott has said that it hopes to introduce Xience Prime to the U.S. market by 2012, provided it wins approval from the Food & Drug Administration after its Spirit Prime clinical trial concludes.