Dec 4, 2000
Guidant Performs First Human Implants of its MULTI-LINK PENTA Coronary Stent

Launch of MULTI-LINK PENTA Registry is a Result of Guidant's IDE Filing of Fifth Broad Use Coronary Stent System

Indianapolis, Ind. and Santa Clara, Calif. - Guidant Corporation (NYSE and PCX: GDT), a world leader in the treatment of coronary artery disease, announced today it has performed the first human implants of its MULTI-LINK PENTA(tm) coronary stent. Designed to treat atherosclerosis - the narrowing and hardening of coronary arteries over time - the MULTI-LINK PENTA Stent is Guidant's fifth generation coronary stent system.

Thomas McGarry, M.D., of the Oklahoma Foundation for Cardiovascular Research in Oklahoma City, successfully performed the first human implant of Guidant's MULTI-LINK PENTA Stent. This is the first patient enrolled in Guidant's MULTI-LINK PENTA registry, a clinical study that will enroll 200 patients at 22 sites throughout the United States and Europe.

"The MULTI-LINK PENTA is the latest generation and best iteration of Guidant stent systems," said Jeffrey Popma, M.D., of Brigham & Women's Hospital in Boston, principal investigator for Guidant's MULTI-LINK PENTA global registry. "The MULTI-LINK PENTA combines flexibility, deliverability and scaffolding to yield an extremely competitive coronary stent system."

The MULTI-LINK PENTA System features the best attributes of Guidant's original ACS® MULTI-LINK and new MULTI-LINK TETRA(tm) Coronary Stent System designs. The result is a new stent designed to perform unlike any other previously available stent. The MULTI-LINK PENTA System features:

• V.T.S.(tm) (Variable Thickness Strut) is the innovative technology that allows the stent to provide flexibility, conformability, scaffolding and radiopacity (visibility) all in one stent design. This unique technology varies the thickness of the struts to be thicker in certain areas of the stent to provide radiopacity and thinner in the areas of the stent that provide flexibility and conformability.

• GRIP(tm) technology, Guidant's stent crimping process, which delivers enhanced stent retention and smooth surface transitions across the stent and delivery system. This ensures that the stent remains securely attached to the delivery system as the stent is navigated through the patient's vasculature.

• S.T.E.P.(tm) (Short Transitional Edge Protection) technology, which provides an optimal configuration of stent length and working balloon to minimize the amount of vessel dilated outside of the stent. This technology also enables uniform stent expansion during deployment and implantation.

"Beginning a clinical registry for our next coronary stent system so soon after launching the MULTI-LINK TETRA Stent is an amazing accomplishment," said John M. Capek, Ph.D., president of Guidant's Vascular Intervention Group. "The speed at which we have been able to develop the MULTI-LINK PENTA System will allow Guidant to offer physicians a new coronary stent system sooner than ever before and is a strong demonstration of our internal product development capabilities and commitment to interventional cardiology."

The launch of Guidant's MULTI-LINK PENTA registry is a result of Guidant's investigational device exemption (IDE) filing with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Guidant launched its previous broad use coronary stent system, the MULTI-LINK TETRA Coronary Stent System, in the U.S. on Oct. 3.

A global leader in the medical technology industry, Guidant Corporation provides innovative, minimally invasive and cost-effective products and services for the treatment of cardiovascular and vascular disease.