Abbott’s stent ‘outperforms’ market leaders

The benefits of Abbott’s Xience V drug eluting stent can be seen even after two years, the medical company claims.

Its Spirit III trial findings show better long-term clinical outcomes and lower instances of stent thrombosis than seen inpatients treated with Boston’s Scientific’s Taxus, Abbott says.

Xience V demonstrated a 45 per cent reduction in the risk of a patient experiencing a major adverse cardiac event and a 32 per cent reduction in the risk of target vessel failure.

Dr Stone, chairman of the Cardiovascular Research Foundation said: “Not only did Xience V clearly differentiate itself from the Taxus stent in the first year after treatment, it has now demonstrated even more positive effects at two years.”

He added that researchers noted positive trends for lower observed rates of late and very late stent thrombosis in patients treated with the drug, especially in patients who discontinued dual antiplatelet therapy.

Taxus stents were briefly withdrawn from use following fears over safety.