Sorin Group (BIT:SRN) signed a deal with medical device giant Boston Scientific (NYSE:BSX), agreeing to supply certain components of Boston Scientific’s Lotus transcatheter aortic valve implantation system.
The companies didn’t divulge many details of the deal, but Sorin said that it would manufacture parts of the Lotus device at its facility in Vancouver.
Boston Scientific’s Lotus TAVI system has yet to hit the shelves in any markets worldwide, and it’ll face some stiff competition when it does.
Analysts have said that the Lotus system may gain CE Mark approval in the European Union before the end of fiscal 2013, but the device will have to compete with with TAVI rivals Medtronic (NYSE:MDT), with its CoreValve device, and Edwards Lifesciences (NYSE:EW), with its Sapien device. Both CoreValve and Sapien have been on the European market since 2007.
Boston Scientific in May released study results suggesting that the Lotus system results in lower rates of paravalvular leakage at 30-days, compared with rival devices.
"BSX’s Lotus valve demonstrated the lowest rate of paravalvular leak – 1.9% moderate/severe – which has a clear correlation to poor mortality outcomes," Leerink analysts Danielle Antalffy and Robert Marcus wrote in a note to investors at the time. "However, there was a 29.3% rate of newly implanted pacemakers associated with the Lotus valve, much higher than the 20%+ we’ve seen with Sapien XT – a trade-off we suspect many physicians will be willing to accept."
