Drug Eluting Stents Vs. Bare Metals Stents Win Again
A new study funded by the Massachusetts Department of Public Health is showing further evidence to support the use of drug eluting stents over bare metal stents in heart attack patients. This study measured stent use specifically in diabetic patients. Drug-eluting stents showed improved outcomes as compared with bare metal stents in diabetics, and no excess adverse events were found with drug-eluting stents in diabetic patients. This data was reported by researchers at the American Heart Association’s Scientific Sessions 2008 in New Orleans. Some of the raw numbers appear marginal, but others are very impressive.
Drug-eluting stents reduced the risk of revascularization, heart attack and death in diabetics as compared with bare-metal stents in the largest observational comparison. The results were presented as a late-breaking clinical trial and is simultaneously published in circulation in the Journal of the American Heart Association.
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SurModics: Investors Looking Under The Hood (SRDX, MRK, JNJ)
SurModics Inc. (NASDAQ: SRDX) is seeing a sharp drop after recent news. Its partner Merck & Co. (NYSE: MRK) is still under an agreement with the SurModics in Phase IIb I-vation trials, but Merck has suspended enrollment in the study as it is studies the design. This follows a recently published study comparing laser treatment and intravitreal injections of triamcinolone acetonide in patients with diabetic macular edema. The one downgrade we have seen today is from Barrington Research.
SurModics also makes the coatings for the Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ) Cypher dreg-eluting stents. As drug-eluting stents went through a two-year controversy, that part of SurModics’ business has not grown as much as some were hoping. This company still has many applications not yet on the market, so neither situation takes the “call option” out of this company as far as evaluating its potential worth which you can see on its applicable uses on its site.
The company now has a market cap of $710 million and its most recent tangible book value after backing out goodwill and other intangibles was about $108 million. The 52-week trading range is $38.17 to $56.75, and shares this morning went as low as $38.51.
This company is actually lucky that it has only traded 360,000 shares as of 12:55 PM EST, as that is still well over double an average day but is not indicative of institutional holders throwing in the towel all over again.
Jon C. Ogg
August 11, 2008
Stents Set Up For A Comeback (ABT, BSX, MDT, JNJ, SRDX, ANPI)
Abbott Laboratories (NYSE: ABT) announced after the close today, in a decision we have been waiting on for what feels like forever, that the FDA has approved for the company to begin marketing its XIENCE drug-eluting coronary stent systems.
Boston Scientific (NYSE: BSX) will get to sell basically the same exact stent under a different name. Boston Scientific also has the old Taxus stent. Angiotech (NASDAQ: ANPI) is also Boston’s Taxus stent coating partner for its molecule.
As far as the others, this will get to compete with the Medtronic Inc. (NYSE: MDT) Endeavor stent system as well as Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ) Cypher stent. Medtronic won the first Stent system approval in February after a 4-year hiatus. SurModics Inc. (NASDAQ: SRDX) is the molecule partner over at J&J for the drug-eluting coatings for teh Cypher stent.
This is being viewed as a key win for Abbott Labs with shares up 1.6% at $55.10 in after-hours trading. The good news is that the dark clouds surrounding stents and drug-eluting stents is starting to lift. The bad news on the topic is that this is now a highly competitive sub-sector in coronary medical technology.
Jon Ogg
July 2, 2008