Stenting: Dynamic growth continues
Paris, France - The explosive growth in demand for drug eluting stents has shaped a market worth more than six billion euros annually.
According to figures published at EuroPCR, the annual European Paris Course of Revascularisation, some 2.5 million percutaneous coronary interventions (PCIs) will be performed globally this year - and 75% of these procedures will employ drug eluting stents (DES) - remarkable statistics for a medical technology that is under five years old.
At the meeting, Boston Scientific Corporation announced that it had received indication extensions to the European CE mark for its Taxus Liberté paclitaxel-eluting coronary stent system for use in some of the most challenging coronary procedures, including re-stenotic lesions and total occlusions in patients with coronary artery disease. These three new indications account for more than 20% of all coronary interventions.
Boston Scientific also announced funding for a new EU medical training facility - The Institute for Therapy Advancement - that will open in Brussels, Belgium, in early 2007. The company has several new pipeline offerings including the platinum alloy Taxus Barracuda stent, which has narrower struts for greater conformability, and the AST Petal stent platform for use in bifurcated vessels. The latter is designed to expand into the side branch, permitting blood to flow into both branches of the bifurcation and providing support at the branch.
01.07.2006
