The Medical Device Business Journal — Medical Device News & Articles | MassDevice
Abbott Laboratories opened up a new front in the long-running stent wars, with the official launch of its Xience Prime drug-eluting stent in Europe.
The announcement was made at the European Society of Cardiology Congress in Barcelona, Spain. Chicago-based Abbott received CE Mark approval for the device in June.
The law firm that’s representing Boston Scientific Corp. in a coronary stent patent case against pharma giant Wyeth and Johnson & Johnson’s Cordis Corp. unit can stay on the job.
Judge Susan Robinson of the U.S. District Court for Delaware denied Wyeth’s motion to disqualify Howrey LLP as the Natick, Mass.-based device maker’s counsel, despite Howrey’s representation of Wyeth in a separate, unrelated case in Europe.
Dr. Bruce Saffran, fresh from a $500 million court victory and a private settlement with Boston Scientific over a drug-eluting stent patent, is suing Abbott Laboratories (PDF) for violating the same patent with its Xience V stent.
Saffran, a New Jersey radiologist, won the half-billion-dollar verdict against the Natick, Mass.-based devices giant and later settled for an undisclosed amount (although BoSci later posted a $50 million charge on the deal).
Health Canada approved Abbott’s Xience V drug-eluting stent, which the Chicago-based colossus said it plans to bring to market north of the border immediately.
The device, which competes with Boston Scientific‘s Taxus product, uses a different drug, everolimus, than the paclitaxel-eluting Taxus. The drugs are designed to inhibit the re-growth of vascular tissue around the mesh-like stent.
A pair of studies published in Cardiology Today delivered positive results for Boston Scientific Corp.‘s Taxus and Taxus Express drug-eluting stents.
The first study compared the Taxus paclitaxel-eluting stent with Johnson & Johnson subsidiary Cordis Corp.’s Cypher sirolimus-eluting stent in a total of 6,035 patients. It indicated that, a year after implantation with either device, patients showed “similar rates of clinically important restenosis and ischemic complications.”
Boston Scientific Corp. got a boost from Leerink Swann analyst Rick Wise, who upgraded his rating for the Natick, Mass.-based medical devices giant to “outperform.”
Abbott Vascular extended its post-approval study of the Xience V (PDF) drug-eluting stent, making as many as 2,000 patients in the trial eligible for another study of dual anti-platelet therapy.
The Abbott Park, Ill.-based devices giant said the expansion of the study examining its everolimus-eluting coronary stent opens up the Dual Anti-Platelet Therapy (PDF) trial to more than 2,000 potential subjects.
A federal judge apologized to both parties and the federal bench in overturning a prior, erroneous ruling that a pair of Johnson & Johnson unit Cordis Corp.’s stent patents were unenforceable.
Judge Susan Robinson of the U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware said her 2002 decision in Cordis Corp. v. Boston Scientific Corp. et al. was wrong and reversed the opinion, setting the stage for yet another round in the more than 10-year-old case.
Sales of Boston Scientific Corp.’s Taxus coronary stent remain well off last year’s pace and have declined significantly over the past two years due to increased competition, according to regulatory filings (PDF) by the Vancouver-based pharmaceutical company that makes the drug used in the stent’s coating.
The bad news just keeps on coming for Medtronic Inc., the Minneapolis-based medical device giant.
What a difference a day makes.
Yesterday Boston Scientific Corp. was fielding false claims and Medicare fraud charges.
Today the Natick, Mass.-based medical devices leviathan got word of a possible debt rating upgrade and said the Food & Drug Administration gave pre-market approval to its Taxus Liberté long stent.
