Replies to post #105112 on Biotech Values

[DewDiligence]

(BSX ABT)—Game set match.

I think it’s fair to say that the main reason Taxus (either legacy or Liberté) still has sales at all is Xience’s late entry into the very-short and very-long market segments, which comprise about 20% of the market according to ABT.

[DewDiligence]

How great is ABT’s Xience? Here’s one indication—JNJ just issued a PR touting the fact that JNJ’s own Cypher stent is almost as good as Xience:

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/CYPHER-Sirolimus-DrugEluting-bw-1973810946.html?x=0&.v=1

Source: Cordis Corporation [a subsidiary of JNJ]

Monday September 27, 2010, 5:27 pm EDT

…The large randomized trial SORT OUT IV included more than 2,600 patients across a wide range of lesion and patient complexity. The study was designed to test whether the XIENCE V® stent is non-inferior to the CYPHER® stent. Both drug-eluting stents performed better than planned for the composite endpoint of MACE (4.9 % for XIENCE V® Stent vs. 5.2% for CYPHER® Stent); these data support the non-inferiority of the XIENCE stent over the CYPHER stent (non-inferiority p=0.01).

JNJ’s PR reminds me of a General Motors ad many years ago which touted the fact that GM’s car finished second to Volkswagen among all cars in its class.