Abbott said it’s planning a fourth-quarter launch for its Xience V everolimus-eluting coronary stent (PDF), after the Chinese State Food and Drug Administration approved the device to treat coronary artery disease.

It’s the latest win for the Chicago-based medical device monolith’s latest-generation drug-eluting stent. Last month, the Canadian health ministry approved the device, and Abbott said it expects a similar move in Japan by the end of the year.

Its stent business, especially the Xience line, helped buoy the company’s second-quarter results, which were dragged down by snags in its large pharmaceutical unit.

Global sales of the Xience line jumped 43 percent to $658 million during the three months ended June 30. CFO John Thomas told analysts on a conference call that the platform accounted for more than half of all the drug-eluting stents implanted in the United States during April, May and June. The Xience V stent, he said, remains at the top of the heap with an individual product market share “in the high 20s.”