Biotech Values

[DewDiligence]

FDA Approves ABT’s Xience Stent

[As part of the resolution of BSX’s acquisition of Guidant (in which ABT ended up with Guidant’s drug-eluting stent program), BSX will market a copycat version of Xience called Promus. How will ABT and BSX distinguish these copycat stents from one another? By the delivery systems and the price. By many industry-standard metrics, Xience/Promus is the best drug-eluting stent on the market, and it should immediately take substantial share from the incumbents: MDT's Endeavor, JNJ's Cypher, and BSX’s Taxus.]

http://www.reuters.com/article/marketsNews/idUSN0242567820080702

›Wed Jul 2, 2008 5:19pm EDT

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Abbott Laboratories Inc's drug-coated heart stent Xience became the latest entry to a U.S. market hit by safety concerns, winning approval on Wednesday.

Xience, which will launch immediately, joins a multibillion-dollar market that includes devices sold by Johnson & Johnson, Boston Scientific and Medtronic Inc.

Shares of Abbott were up 1.6 percent in extended trading following news of the approval from their $54.24 close on the New York Stock Exchange.

The Xience stent will compete with Medtronic's Endeavor, J&J's Cypher and Boston Scientific's Taxus stents. Boston Scientific also has rights to sell Xience under a private label as part of a deal with Abbott.

But recent concerns that drug-coated stents can also trigger potentially deadly blood clots in some patients, months after the devices are implanted, have dented the once $6 billion-a-year U.S. market.‹