Corrected January 28, 2014, 11:45 a.m.
St. Jude Medical (NYSE:STJ) today touted the 1st U.K. implant of its newly acquired Nanostim pacemaker technology, a lead-free device implanted directly into the heart to help regulate abnormal heart rhythms.
The device, which is delivered via minimally invasive, transcatheter procedure and can be repositioned and retrieved, was implanted in a 77-year-old female patient at St. Bartholomew’s Hospital in London, according to St. Jude.
The Nanostim device is more than 90% smaller than a traditional pacemaker. Because it’s implanted directly into the heart, surgeons don’t need to create a "surgical pocket" to house the device, eliminating related scarring and complications. Since there are no wires threaded through blood vessels, patients may also have fewer concerns about dislodging or damaging the device.
"The 1st post-approval implant in the U.K. is an important step for this revolutionary technology platform and a proud addition to St. Jude Medical’s strong history in pacing innovation," St. Jude Medical U.K. vice president Paul Turner said in prepared remarks. "By providing a smaller, leadless pacing technology, physicians will now be able to offer patients a device that upholds the accuracy of conventional pacemaker technology via a minimally invasive procedure."
St. Jude in October 2013 acquired Nanostim in a deal worth about $189 million, with $123.5 million up-front and another $65 million in revenue-based milestone payments. The medtech titan said at the time that it planned to have the device "available soon in select European markets." A U.S. pivotal clinical trial is also in the works, following the FDA’s conditional approval for an investigational device exemption.
New of the implant did little for STJ shares, which were down 1% to $61.48 as of about 12:50 p.m. today. The stock is up 8.9% compared with 6 months ago.
Correction: This article mistakenly stated that this was the 1st commercial implant of the device. The procedure was the 1st post-approval implant in the U.K.
