"The Stent Blog is a must-read resource"   -- ConcurringOpinions.com

What is
'The Voice
in the Ear'?


Who's Burt?

Archives

« send comment »

RSS Feed

October 18, 2006 -- 10:10pm ET

Team SPIRIT**
They're sharing a drug-eluting stent: one calls it Xience, like some zapped-up version of "science"; the other calls it Promus (would that be the Latinate "proh - moose" or the more margarine-ated "promise"). But no matter what you call it, the stent is the shared adopted offspring of Guidant -- it's been approved in the European Union and it's heading for U.S. shores. The team I'm talking about is, of course, Abbott and Boston Scientific, and I've mentioned their historical connection before.

Today, both companies posted a profit in their quarterly reports: Abbott's rose 5% compared with the third quarter from last year; Boston Scientific's report was even better, showing a profit of $76 million in third quarter 2006, compared with a net loss of $269 million for the same period last year, even though the sales of Boston's Taxus drug-eluting stent are declining slightly due to safety concerns with the current generation of these devices.

And on Monday, a new West Virginia start-up device company, Paragon Intellectual Properties, announced $15 million in financing, including a new R&D center in California. The infusion of capital came from local private investment, and two major device manufacturers, unnamed in the press release -- but they are indeed...the Team: Abbott and Boston Scientific.

Is there a pattern here?

** couldn't resist the pun -- SPIRIT is the name of the clinical trial series validating the Xience/Promus stent.

« comment »        « back to top »