UPDATE: Updated to include statements from Abbott
Abbott (NYSE:ABT) said today it will halt global sales of its 1st-generation Absorb bioresorbable vascular scaffold due to low commercial sales.
In a statement on its website, the company said it is discontinuing all sizes of the Absorb bioresorbable vascular scaffold system, effective Sept. 14.
“Absorb sales accounted for less than 1% of Abbott’s overall stent sales globally. Sales volume was low, and it cost more to make Absorb than what it sold for – making it unsustainable. The 2nd-generation device we’re working on has a thinner profile and is easier to deliver,” Abbott wrote.
While the current product will be taken off the market, the company said that it will continue development of next-generation devices and monitoring of patients in existing clinical trials.
“We recognize that BRS technologies offer patients the possibility of life without permanent metallic implants, and we will continue to work on a next generation device while monitoring long-term outcomes after stent resorption in current Absorb trials,” the company wrote in a statement on its website.
Abbott said that physicians with existing products are free to implant the devices “if they choose to do so,” but that in the European Union, implants are restricted to centers participating in approved clinical trials.
“We pioneered bioresorbable technology because we believe it offers patients the possibility of life without permanent metallic implants, and we will continue work on a next generation bioresorbable device. We’ll also continue to follow implanted patients in existing Absorb clinical trials to assess long-term outcomes after the scaffold has dissolved. We’re dedicated to developing treatments that help patients with vascular and other heart diseases live their fullest lives,” Abbott wrote.
The company said its Xience drug-eluting stent is still the “cornerstone of our portfolio,” and that it will continue developing next-gen versions of it.
“Our metallic Xience drug-eluting stent will continue to be the cornerstone of our portfolio, and we will focus efforts on a next generation metallic drug-eluting product, Xience Sierra, that offers improved deliverability and expanded sizes; and to imaging and physiology assessment tools that help doctors perform complex interventional procedures,” Abbott wrote in a statement.
