The Xience V drug coated stent is used to treat coronary artery disease by propping open a narrowed or blocked artery and releasing the drug, everolimus, in a controlled manner to prevent the artery from becoming blocked again following a stent procedure.
Abbott’s Xience V is said to be the only drug eluting stent to have demonstrated superiority over Boston Scientific’s Taxus paclitaxel-eluting coronary stent system in two randomized head-to-head clinical trials. Xience V will be launched in the US immediately.
John Capek, executive vice president of medical devices at Abbott, said: “Xience V represents an important treatment advance for the estimated 13 million people in the US suffering from coronary artery disease, and we believe Xience V will quickly become the new standard for drug eluting stents given its outstanding clinical results.”