NEW STUDY FAVORABLE TO DRUG-COATED STENTS

ACCORDING TO A NEW REPORT by a multinational team of doctors, patients who get the leading drug-coated heart stents, to prop open coronary arteries, rather than bare-metal stents do not run a higher risk of death.

This finding is consistent with several others reported at recent cardiology meetings, and it may help allay safety concerns set off last year by reports of potentially deadly clots forming in the leading drug-coated stents.

The study combines and re-analyzes the latest data available from 38 previously reported clinical trials.

Taxus and Cypher are the best-selling drug-coated stents in most overseas markets, and the only such devices approved for sale in the United States. Sales of both have tumbled about 40% in the last year, because some patients have shifted to bare-metal stents, and some patients have decided not to get stents at all.

Still, sales of drug-coated stents will total $5.5 billion of the $6.5 billion worldwide stent market this year, says the Millennium Research Group, a market-research company in Toronto.

Stenting during heart attacks can save lives. But most stents are implanted to provide relief from chest pains, shortness of breath, or other symptoms of narrowing heart arteries. Such stenting can vastly improve a patient's life, yet there is little evidence that it helps patients live longer. Results from a clinical trial released in March suggested that most patients could gain such relief over time from taking drugs and adopting healthier lifestyles.

The study may calm enough fears about drug-coated stents to spur growth in their share of the stent market, said Dr. Gregg Stone, a Columbia University cardiologist who has been a main investigator on Taxus trials.