Boston Scientific stent inferior to Abbott Lab's, study says

Boston Scientific Corp.'s Taxus Liberte stent shouldn't be used in routine clinical practice because it's inferior in terms of safety and efficacy to Abbott Laboratories' Xience V product, said researchers writing in The Lancet medical journal.

Taxus, which is coated in the paclitaxel medicine, was linked to a higher risk of "major cardiac events" after one year and worse restoration of blood flow than Xience, which is covered in the everolimus drug, the scientists said.

"The everolimus-eluting stent is better than the second- generation paclitaxel-eluting stent in unselected patients in terms of safety and efficacy," the researchers, led by Pieter Smits of the Department of Cardiology at Maasstad hospital in Rotterdam, wrote in the study. "On the basis of our results, we suggest that paclitaxel-eluting stents should no longer be used in everyday clinical practice."

The results of the study called Compare, which were initially presented at a scientific meeting last year, support another 2009 study, which found that Abbott's Xience V stent prevented heart attacks and repeat surgeries more than rival devices from Boston Scientific. The findings were likely to encourage doctors to shift to Xience or to a Boston Scientific product, Promus, which is also covered in everolimus, Michael Weinstein, a JPMorgan Chase & Co. analyst, said in a Sept. 21 note to clients.

"The results of the Compare trial are out of step with extensive, rigorous scientific evidence attesting to the safety and efficacy of Taxus stents," Keith Dawkins, chief medical officer for Natick, Massachusetts-based Boston Scientific, said in an e-mail statement. The Lancet study authors "ignore the substantial body of published evidence in favor of their own limited study."

Stents are tiny metal mesh tubes that keep arteries open after doctors clear clogged vessels in a procedure called a balloon angioplasty. Newer devices are coated with a chemical polymer and drugs to prevent the growth of tissue re-blocking the artery, the main complication of older bare-metal models.

Abbott reported coronary stent sales of $1.2 billion in 2008, 4.1 percent of total revenue. The company, based in Abbott Park, Illinois, obtained Xience when it purchased Guidant Corp.'s stent business for $4.1 billion in April 2006.

Taxus stents made up $1.32 billion, or 16 percent, of Boston Scientific's 2008 sales, according to a company filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

Abbott and Boston Scientific provided funding for the research.