NATICK, Mass., Jan. 20 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Boston Scientific Corporation today announced it has been awarded a contract by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) for a full line of the Company's pacemakers and defibrillators. The one-year contract took effect last month and has annual renewal options for up to four years. It includes Boston Scientific's newest technologies in both product categories: the ALTRUA™ family of pacemakers and the TELIGEN™ implantable cardioverter defibrillator.

The contract provides Boston Scientific the opportunity to supply life-saving and life-improving therapies to VA patients at risk of sudden cardiac death and bradycardia arrhythmias. Overall patient enrollment at VA Medical Centers has increased from 4.8 million in 2000 to 8.0 million in 2008 and is projected to continue growing.

"We are committed to working with physicians at VA Medical Centers across the country to provide our implantable therapy options for their cardiac rhythm management patients," said Fred Colen, President, Boston Scientific Cardiac Rhythm Management. "During the past two years, we have made substantial improvements to our quality and reliability systems, which will enable us to better serve VA physicians and their patients."

Boston Scientific is a worldwide developer, manufacturer and marketer of medical devices whose products are used in a broad range of interventional medical specialties. For more information, please visit: www.bostonscientific.com.

Reference herein to any specific commercial products, process, or service does not necessarily constitute or imply its endorsement, recommendation, or favoring by the United States Government. The views and opinions of authors expressed herein do not necessarily state or reflect those of the United States Government, and shall not be used for advertising or product endorsement purposes.

Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Forward-looking statements may be identified by words like "anticipate," "expect," "project," "believe," "plan," "estimate," "intend" and similar words. These forward-looking statements are based on our beliefs, assumptions and estimates using information available to us at the time and are not intended to be guarantees of future events or performance. These forward-looking statements include, among other things, statements regarding our customer contracts, product performance, quality systems and our growth strategy. If our underlying assumptions turn out to be incorrect, or if certain risks or uncertainties materialize, actual results could vary materially from the expectations and projections expressed or implied by our forward-looking statements. These factors, in some cases, have affected and in the future (together with other factors) could affect our ability to implement our business strategy and may cause actual results to differ materially from those contemplated by the statements expressed in this press release. As a result, readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on any of our forward-looking statements.

Factors that may cause such differences include, among other things: future economic, competitive, reimbursement and regulatory conditions; new product introductions; demographic trends; intellectual property; litigation; financial market conditions; and, future business decisions made by us and our competitors. All of these factors are difficult or impossible to predict accurately and many of them are beyond our control. For a further list and description of these and other important risks and uncertainties that may affect our future operations, see Part I, Item 1A- Risk Factors in our most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, which we may update in Part II, Item 1A - Risk Factors in Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q we have filed or will file thereafter. We disclaim any intention or obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements to reflect any change in our expectations or in events, conditions, or circumstances on which those expectations may be based, or that may affect the likelihood that actual results will differ from those contained in the forward-looking statements. This cautionary statement is applicable to all forward-looking statements contained in this document.

    CONTACT:   Paul Donovan
               508-650-8541 (office)
               508-667-5165 (mobile)
               Media Relations
               Boston Scientific Corporation

               Larry Neumann
               508-650-8696 (office)
               Investor Relations
               Boston Scientific Corporation

SOURCE: Boston Scientific Corporation

Web site: http://www.bostonscientific.com/