Boston Scientific stent ‘superior to competitor’

Boston Scientific has claimed that its Taxus stent has demonstrated superiority over the rival Cypher stent, manufactured by the Johnson & Johnson subsidiary, Cordis.

The head-to-head study compared the Taxus Express 2 stent with the Cypher stent in 1,588 patients and found that although both products enabled comparable target vessel revascularisation (TVR), the trend towards a lower TVR score was demonstrated by a statistically significant degree in the complex diabetic population.

Furthermore, the two stents demonstrated equivalent levels of safety in the TC-Wyre study.

Paul LaViolette, chief operating officer at Boston Scientific, remarked: “While some smaller, single-center studies have suggested significant differences between the Cypher stent and the Taxus stent, these differences have not been borne out by the broader body of clinical data and have been inconsistent with what physicians tell us about their daily practice experience,”

Last month, Johnson & Johnson announced it had plans to sue Boston Scientific and Abbott Laboratories over an alleged leak of confidential information during its attempts to acquire Guidant. Both Abbott and Boston Scientific have dismissed the accusations as being without merit.