Value Add

Abbott Laboratories Launches Xience

The drug-coated stent worked almost twice as well as top-seller

The global stent market is about $5 billion. Abbott Laboratories' a multi-billion dollar company's drug-coated Xience heart stent worked almost twice as well as the top-seller, Boston Scientific Corp's Taxus, scientists found.

The studies confirm that the Xience, the newest drug-coated stents, help clear blocked heart arteries with fewer complications than older models. Abbott's Xience prevented heart attacks, kept arteries open and avoided the need for repeat surgeries almost twice as well as Boston Scientific's Taxus, according to the study.

The Xience V stent was designed to improve safety and efficacy, and the pivotal US trial demonstrating its superiority. Since, the stents are available in the Indian markets as well, this is going to prove beneficial to the patients. In 1,002 patients who had Xience stents for two years, there were 45 per cent fewer deaths, heart attacks and follow-up procedures, compared with those who got Boston Scientific's Taxus, according to the study. The study eases doubts raised by research published in March that showed Xience's benefits over Taxus at preventing growth of artery-clogging tissue disappeared after two years.