Healthcare Industry News: cobalt chromium stent
News Release - June 16, 2008
Cook Medical Enters Coronary Stent Market in Europe with New CoCr Stent
Global Therapeutics Receives CE Mark Approval for Advanced GTX(R) Bare Metal Coronary Stent System Designed for Optimal Clinical PerformanceBROOMFIELD, Colo.--(HSMN NewsFeed)--Global Therapeutics, the cardiology unit of Cook Medical, has received CE Mark approval for a new cobalt chromium bare metal coronary stent that company executives believe will fill a demand for non-drug eluting coronary stents among interventional cardiologists, the company announced today. The device, the Global Therapeutics GTX® Coronary Stent System, is available immediately in the European Union and United Kingdom.
“Ever since the issue of late-stage thrombosis associated with drug-eluting coronary stents (DECS) came to light recently, interventional cardiologists have been reexamining the valuable role bare metal stents can play in treating coronary artery disease in many patients,” explained Joe Horn, president of Global Therapeutics. “Not only do our bare metal stents eliminate the concerns associated with potential delayed reactions from DES in certain coronary patients, our bare metal cobalt chromium stent has advanced features designed to improve clinical performance of BMS in coronary arteries. The GTX stent has been engineered specifically to eliminate the technical challenges, such as recoil, stent balloon retention and stent spring-back, that have been associated with earlier cobalt chromium stent designs currently on the market.”
In addition to these technical advantages, Horn added, the GTX may offer a significant cost-savings. Bare metal versions of coronary stents historically cost about one-third as much as their drug-coated iterations, making bare metal stents a more cost-effective option in treating many coronary disease patients. "This device fills a real need at a time when health care systems around the world are struggling to contain skyrocketing health care costs for heart disease, the leading killer in the industrialized world," Horn said. “Not every coronary patient truly needs a drug-eluting stent, and we feel the GTX platform offers a significant advance in bare metal stent technology many cardiologists and hospitals will welcome both for its potential clinical benefits and for its cost-effectiveness.”
Global Therapeutics also is developing a breakthrough drug-eluting stent (DES) technology using the GTX platform and an improved application of antisense gene therapy—developed by its partner, AVI BioPharma, Inc. (NASDAQ: AVII: www.avibio.com) of Corvallis, Oregon—to inhibit the proliferation of a gene known to induce the restenosis process, Horn added. The clinical trial is expected to begin in the third quarter of 2008 in Europe.
About Cook Medical
Cook Medical was one of the first companies to help popularize interventional medicine, pioneering many of the devices now commonly used worldwide to perform minimally invasive medical procedures. Today, the company integrates device design, biopharma, gene and cell therapy and biotech to enhance patient safety and improve clinical outcomes in the fields of aortic intervention; interventional cardiology; critical care medicine; gastroenterology; radiology, peripheral vascular, bone access and oncology; surgery and soft tissue repair; urology; and assisted reproductive technology, gynecology and high-risk obstetrics. Cook is a past winner of the prestigious Medical Device Manufacturer of the Year Award from Medical Device & Diagnostic Industry magazine. For more information, visit www.cookmedical.com.
Source: Cook Medical
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