Stent market goliath Abbott Laboratories’ (NYSE:ABT) Xience V drug-eluting stent proved safer and more effective in nondiabetic patients over DES market leader Boston Scientific Corp.’s (NYSE:BSX) Taxus.

Abbott’s Xience V is a everolimus-eluting stent while Taxus is a paclitaxel-eluting stent, and both are FDA-cleared for the U.S. market.

The latest analysis of pooled data from the Compare trials and Spirit I, II and III studies showed that Xience V reduced risk of death, MI, stent thrombosis and recurrent ischemia when compared to Taxus in a nondiabetic population.

Among diabetics the two stents were equivalent in performance.

"We were fortunate here to have access to a large pooled database, where we were able to perform a patient-level analysis," lead investigator Dr. Gregg Stone of Colombia University told Heartwire. "We showed that there is in fact a very significant—not a borderline, but a very significant—interaction between diabetes status and stent type, particularly among the safety and efficacy end points."

The new study adds to a pile of Abbott releases touting Xience V over Taxus over the past few years.

Boston Scientific, which ranked 10th on the MassDevice Big 100 list of the world’s largest medical device companies, is the top dog in the $4.6 billion U.S. drug-eluting stent market with $1.5 billion in DES sales in 2010, according to market research firm CompaniesandMarkets.com’s recent report.

Abbot, which ranked 1st on the MassDevice Big 100, followed in second place with $1.4 billion in DES sales.