Boston Scientific Posts Encouraging CRT-TAVR Study Data - Analyst Blog

Boston Scientific Corporation BSX recently reported favorable results from studies pertaining to cardiac resynchronization therapy CRT, platinum chromium stent platforms and transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) at the American College of Cardiology's ACC 63rd Annual Scientific Session. The company also presented new data on nearly a dozen cardiology-related clinical trials at the session, which was held from March 29-31 at Washington, D.C.

Boston Scientific's shares gained 0.8% in the trading session that followed the release of the study results. The stock is up around 14.6% year to date.

In the aforementioned session, Boston Scientific announced significant findings from the continued analysis of the landmark MADIT-CRT study that showed a significant and sustained survival benefit in mild heart failure patients. The study established that patients who were assigned a Boston Scientific defibrillator with CRT had relatively 41% less risk of death than those who received a defibrillator alone.

The results also demonstrated that patients receiving CRT therapy had 62% lesser chances of suffering a first heart failure event than those without the CRT therapy.

The MADIT-CRT trial compares Implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (ICD) to CRT defibrillators (CRT-D) therapy in patients with mild heart failure. In this global multicenter study comprising 1,691 patients, over 80% of the patients who received CRT therapy were still alive at 7 years. Boston Scientific has developed CRT-D that have the greatest projected battery longevity in the industry of up to 8 years. These long-lasting devices will likely reduce the need for additional device implants in heart failure patients.

As part of another trial, Boston Scientific released new data that continue to validate the advantages of its platinum chromium stents, in turn, demonstrating its design leadership in drug eluting stent DES technology. In this regard, the PLATINUM Workhorse clinical trial compared the safety and effectiveness of the company's Platinum Chromium Everolimus-Eluting Stent System (PtCr EES) to the Abbott Laboratories Cobalt Chromium Everolimus-Eluting Stent System (CoCr EES).

The trial results showed that PtCr EES has had low event rates through 4 years. An earlier reported significant reduction in unplanned stenting with PtCr EES compared to the CoCr EES, including a significantly lower rate of inadequate lesion coverage, was also confirmed.

These clinical observations reinforce greater visibility and derivability of PtCr EES vis-à-vis CoCr EES, apart from the cost-savings achieved per procedure.
 
Boston Scientific's Promus PREMIER Everolimus-Eluting Platinum Chromium Coronary Stent System was recently approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). This enhanced stent delivery system proves useful for physicians in treating coronary artery disease in patients.

In another development at the ACC 2014, new data presented showed that Boston Scientific's Lotus Valve System advanced TAVR technology continues to demonstrate solid performance at three months. The REPRISE II clinical trial, which is an ongoing perspective, has been evaluating the Lotus Valve System in symptomatic patients with severe aortic valve stenosis having high risk for surgical valve replacement.      

REPRISE II has enrolled 120 patients at 14 sites across Australia, France, Germany and the U.K. An additional 130 patients will be enrolled in an extension of REPRISE II at 16 sites in Australia and Europe by the end of this month.

This trial results were impressive, with a whopping 85% of patients having no paravalvular aortic regurgitation by independent core lab assessment at 90 days. Moreover, there were no cases of patients having severe paravalvular aortic regurgitation at 90 days.

Boston Scientific currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).

Some better-ranked stocks worth considering in the medical products industry include Enzymotec Ltd. ENZY, Meridian Bioscience, Inc. VIVO and SurModics, Inc. SRDX. While Enzymotec carries a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), SurModics and Meridian hold a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).