Boston Scientific to Acquire Stent Company

In a move to acquire new stent technology, Boston Scientific Corp. (Natick, MA, USA) has agreed to acquire Advanced Stent Technologies, Inc. (AST, Pleasanton, CA, USA). Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

AST has been developing stent and stent delivery systems specifically designed to meet the unique anatomic needs of coronary artery disease in bifurcated vessels. As much as 30% of coronary artery disease occurs when a single vessel branches, or bifurcates, into two vessels. Bifurcations have been hard to treat with conventional stents, since these are designed to support a single cylinder, not a cylinder with an offshoot in the middle.

AST has developed a new design called Petal, which incorporates stent features at both ends with the Petal feature in the middle. This Petal bifurcation stent is designed to expand into the side branch, permitting blood to flow into both branches of the bifurcation and providing support at the branch. When combined with the Taxus paclitaxel-eluting stent technology of Boston Scientific, the Petal device will also deliver drugs to the bifurcated vessel, which should improve outcomes.

"Since traditional and even drug-eluting stents have fallen short for these patients, bifurcation disease remains one of the primary reasons patients are still referred to open heart surgery,” noted Maurice Buchbinder, M.D., director of the Foundation for Cardiovascular Medicine at Scripps Memorial Hospital (La Jolla, CA, USA). "If our initial studies are any indication, the Petal device will dramatically improve outcomes for patients with disease in bifurcated vessels.”


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