Article preview from "The Gray Sheet" - July 7, 2008
Abbott remains confident that it will gain 25% to 30% share of the U.S. drug-eluting stent market over the next year now that it has launched its Xience V everolimus-eluting stent.
The firm simultaneously announced FDA approval and a nationwide launch of the product July 2.
Boston Scientific said it also is immediately launching Promus, its private-label version of Xience. Promus is supplied by Abbott under an arrangement resulting from Boston Scientific's 2006 $28 billion purchase of Guidant, the original developer of Xience. Future stents under the Promus brand name will be developed and manufactured entirely by Boston Scientific.
With the addition of Promus to its existing Taxus paclitaxel-eluting stent line, Boston Scientific is the first firm to offer two different drug-eluting stents that each contain different drugs. The firm says that this two-drug strategy will give it an advantage in the marketplace.
Taxusand Johnson & Johnson/Cordis' Cypher sirolimus-eluting stent are the leading drug-eluting stents in the United States, but Medtronic's Endeavor zotarolimus-eluting stent has performed better than expected since it was launched in February (1"The Gray Sheet" May 26, 2008, p. 4).
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