Shares of Abiomed Inc. (NSDQ:ABMD) ticked up 1.6 percent today on data showing that it helps high-risk patients during emergency heart treatment.
Data from the Protect II clinical trial of its Impella 2.5 heart pump, presented today at the annual meeting of the American College of Cardiology in New Orleans, showed that the device "provides superb hemodynamic support during high-risk interventions," according to lead investigator Dr. William O’Neill of the University of Miami.
O’Neill presented data from a trial Abiomed cut short Dec. 6, 2010, after a planned review found that it was unlikely to meet its primary endpoint. At the time the company said that might be because the device gave surgeons more confidence that intra-aortic balloon pump intervention. O’Neill took that tack as well, pointing out to the heartwire (paid) blog that "it would have been very difficult to protocolize atherectomy use—that was the major confounder."
"It’s just a problem you get into with an unblinded trial," he said. "You really can’t control a lot of the nuances of behavior in the cath lab. The physicians just do the best job they can with the high-risk patients.
"But when it’s apples to apples—Impella vs balloon pump without the confounder of atherectomy—there was a very significant decrease in the adverse event rates at 90 days. That’s a very consistent and scientifically valid observation," O’Neill said, warning that "the message is not ‘don’t use atherectomy [with Impella].’ The message is ‘use it gingerly.’ Use it like you think you have a balloon pump in there with very few passes and short-duration runs, and that will not drive up the event rates."
Abiomed shares closed at $14.88 today, up 1.6 percent on the day. The stock’s been on a tear this year, rising 51.2 percent during the first quarter.
