Abbott’s Xience superior to rival technology

Abbott’s goal for the trial was to establish Xience as an equal competitor with the Taxus stent. Discovering the superiority of Xience will enhance the reputation of Abbot in the vascular market.

Xience is a stent designed to prevent the re-narrowing of coronary arteries after angioplasty. This narrowing is usually the result of blood clotting or tissue growth.

The 300-patient prospective clinical trial evaluates Xience against the Taxus coronary stent system.

Positive results of Abbott’s clinical trial of Xience showed in-stent late loss at six months. Late loss is a measure of the change in the vessel diameter between the time immediately following stent placement and at six months. Late loss results were more successful than those in similar tests on Taxus.

The trial also demonstrated positive results for the Xience stent system, including a statistically significant reduction in percent diameter stenosis from 21 percent for Taxus to 16 percent for Xience. Abbott’s study also included measuring the Mace rate which includes any deaths, heart attacks or increased numbers of lesions during the six month period. The Mace rate was 2.7 % compared to 6.5% for the Taxus stent. Thrombosis rate was also further reduced for Xience over Taxus.

“The stent system’s impressive safety and efficacy data, combined with its highly deliverable platform, will make Xience an attractive new drug-eluting stent for physicians and patients in Europe.” said Professor Patrick. Serruys of the Erasmus University Hospital

Xience, which has received CE Mark approval, is currently an investigational device in the US and Japan. The system utilizes everolimus, which has been shown to reduce tissue proliferation in the coronary vessels following stent implantation, and is based upon the effective Multi-Link Vision coronary stent platform.

Results of the trial will provide additional clinical data to support the launch of Xience in several countries outside the US.