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Johnson & Johnson
Acquires Conor Medsystems, Inc. Novel 2nd Generation Technology May Improve Stent Safety |
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February 2, 2007 -- If you are looking for a stock quote to see how Conor Medsystems is doing, you won't find it today. Formerly listed on NASDAQ as "CONR", the company now is officially part of Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ) who announced yesterday that it had closed its acquisition of Conor Medsystems, Inc. Conor manufactures the CoStar® drug-eluting stent, a second generation drug-eluting stent that has gained the CE mark of approval and is sold in Europe. The stent utilizes a unique design of mini-reservoirs, or dimples, in the stent surface which hold a bioabsorbable polymer. The polymer can elute a variety of drugs to inhibit the overgrowth of tissue inside the stent, reducing restenosis significantly -- the big downside of bare metal stents. Yet, unlike the first generation of drug-eluting stents currently sold in the U.S., the polymer itself degrades and is absorbed into the body after the drug has done its work, thus effectively converting the CoStar into a bare metal stent. The persistence of this polymer in the Taxus and Cypher stents is theorized to be one of the possible causes of late stent thrombosis -- one of the downsides of the current crop of drug-eluting stents. In a press release, Nicholas J. Valeriani, worldwide chairman, Medical Devices and Diagnostics, Johnson & Johnson, stated:
The CoStar has not yet garnered FDA approval for sale in the United States and there are ongoing patent battles waging between Conor (now J&J) and Boston Scientific, regarding use of the drug paclitaxel. These battles will no doubt fuel a new front for the "Stent Wars". They may also fuel Johnson & Johnson into exploring different drugs for use with the Conor stent design. Interesting enough, the acquisition of Conor was finalized the same day that Boston Scientific announced its 2006 fourth quarter results, along with a 17% drop in sales of its Taxus drug-eluting stent from fourth quarter 2005. Boston Scientific's Chief Financial Officer Larry Best, noted that the markets for both drug-eluting stents and ICDs had gone through "trauma...impacted by concerns, perceptions and media attacks on the safety". Last month Johnson & Johnson had reported a 15% drop in sales of its Cypher drug-eluting stent.
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