Abbott threw another grenade Boston Scientific‘s way with a study showing its Xience V drug-eluting stent outperforms BoSci’s Taxus.
The news follows a Medtronic study that company touted earlier today, showing that its Endeavor stent is safer than the Taxus.
Chicago-based Abbott is touting its Spirit III trial comparing the Xience V everolimus-eluting coronary stent with BSX’s Taxus Express paclitaxel-eluting stent. In a study of 1,002 patients three years after being implanted with the stents, those with the Abbott product showed a 43 percent reduction in the risk of major adverse cardiac events compared with patients implanted with the Taxus Express device.
As of about 3:40 p.m. Sept. 21, Abbott shares were up 1.2 percent, to $46.32; Medtronic shares were flat at $37.45; and Boston Scientific shares were up just less than 1 percent at $11.06.