Boston Scientific says Angiotech's Taxus stent is safe and effective

By E. Janene Geiss

Philadelphia, Oct. 19 - Angiotech Pharmaceuticals, Inc.'s corporate partner Boston Scientific announced Wednesday that follow-up data reports excellent long-term safety and efficacy from four of its Taxus clinical trials.

The results were announced by Boston Scientific at the annual Transcatheter Cardiovascular Therapeutics symposium in Washington, D.C., according to a company news release.

Clinical trial data established that the Taxus stent system has an outstanding long-term safety record now extending to four years, officials said.

"The Taxus clinical results reported today are outstanding and demonstrate the long-term safety and efficacy of paclitaxel-eluting stent technology," Gregg W. Stone, principal investigator of the Taxus IV clinical trial and professor of medicine, Columbia University Medical Center in New York, said in the release.

The data reported included the following trials:

* Taxus I, the longest running Taxus clinical trial to date, which reported excellent safety results out to four years with no cases of stent thrombosis, death or myocardial infarction since patient enrollment;

* Taxus II, the first Taxus clinical trial to evaluate late clinical safety and efficacy outcomes of both the slow- and moderate-release formulations, which reported no stent thrombosis from two to three years and a low overall cardiac death rate of 1.6% to three years;

* Taxus IV, the United States pivotal trial, which reported no new cases of stent thrombosis out to three years and a 1.1% cardiac death rate and 2.4% myocardial infarction rate from nine months to three years; and

* Taxus VI, which reported one case of stent thrombosis between one and two years with an overall 0.5% cardiac death rate.

"The results from the Taxus clinical trials announced today demonstrate the consistent and sustained benefits patients are experiencing from this remarkable technology," Paul LaViolette, chief operating officer at Boston Scientific, said in the release.

Boston Scientific acquired worldwide exclusive rights from Angiotech to use paclitaxel to coat its coronary stent products and has co-exclusive rights to other vascular and non-vascular products.

Vancouver, B.C.-based Angiotech Pharmaceuticals, Inc. is a specialty pharmaceutical company pioneering the combination of pharmaceutical compounds with medical devices and biomaterials.

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