Boston Scientific Corp. returned fire to Medtronic and Abbott, aiming to counter the rivals’ claims that their stents outperform BoSci’s older Taxus model.
The Natick, Mass.-based devices leviathan said it “welcomed” data from the Spirit III trial comparing its Taxus Express paclitaxel-eluting stent with Abbott’s everolimus-eluting Xience V stent.
Chicago-based Abbott had claimed that Spirit III showed its stent to be safer three years after implantation.
And Medtronic had touted a study comparing its Endeavor zotarolimus‐eluting stent with the Boston Scientific stent that it said showed a nearly 50 percent reduction in the risk of heart attack or cardiac death with the Endeavor stent after three years.
For its part, BSX said the Spirit III trial showed that the Taxus Express fared well against Xience V, which it sells under the private-label Promus brand. The company cited equivalent rates of cardiac death and low and equivalent rates of stent thrombosis for both devices.
But the company admitted that the Xience/Promus device showed lower rates of cardiac death, heart attack and revascularization than the Taxus Express model.
Chief medical and scientific officer Donald Baim said the company was particularly chuffed about data indicating that diabetic patients suffered lower rates of target lesion revascularization with the Taxus that non-diabetic patients.
But, BSX added, “the safety and effectiveness of the TAXUS Express Stent has not been established in diabetic patients.”
