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November 29, 2005

Déjà Lu
I apologize for the continuing French references, but it's just that the French have a word for it -- and today's is a cousin of Déjà Vu (already seen); it's Déjà Lu (already read).

I am referring to today's press release from Boston Scientific or more correctly their PR firm, Hill & Knowlton. It is headlined: "TAXUS™ Stent Demonstrates Excellent Efficacy and Safety in Independent 'STENT' Registry". It is subtitled: "Trends Favour Boston Scientific's TAXUS Stent Over J&J's Cypher in Interim 9-Month Data From Largest Independent DES Registry in US". Following on the heels of this weekend's Taxus-touting Wall Street Journal article, it looks like Boston's stent is suddenly gaining a lot of positive momentum.

Except that today's press release is old news, literally a reprint of their October 25 release with two small changes, both time-date references which would reveal that the study had been presented (and touted) over a month ago at the TCT meeting. And it follows an interesting article in yesterday's Charlotte (North Carolina) Observer about the same study; it is titled "Drug-coated stents equally effective" and quotes hometown Sanger Clinic cardiologist Charles Simonton MD who actually ran the study. He states:

"These two stents are performing almost identically.... There's no reason why an interventional cardiologist ought to pick one over the other based on the way patients are turning out."

Sigh! Who to believe....

(It's also a case of Déjà Écrit. "already written", because I discussed this disparity in perceptions of the STENT registry study data last month.)

But cardiologists already know about all this stuff -- and by going to meetings like TCT, ACC, AHA and others, they are getting very detailed info about the differences and similarities and outcomes about these two drug-eluting stents, as well as other therapies. So the audience for these "Stent War" vollies is not the medical community. Here's a hint: the press release appears on the Yahoo! Finance boards.

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