Journal of American College of Cardiology publishes positive ATLAS clinical data

NATICK, Mass., Feb. 5 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Boston Scientific Corporation today announced that it has submitted to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) the final modules of the Company's Pre-Market Approval (PMA) applications for both its TAXUS® Liberte® Atom™ Paclitaxel-Eluting Coronary Stent System and its TAXUS Liberte Long™ Paclitaxel-Eluting Coronary Stent System. If approved, the TAXUS Liberte Atom Stent will become the Company's second 2.25 mm diameter drug-eluting stent (DES) available in the United States. It will then likely succeed the TAXUS Express™ Atom Stent, which is the Company's first approved small stent and the only DES currently approved by the FDA to treat small vessels. The TAXUS Liberte Long Stent is designed to be the first 38 mm drug-eluting stent available in the U.S. and will further expand the Company's leading DES portfolio.

These PMA submissions include clinical data from the global, multi-center TAXUS ATLAS Small Vessel (SV) and Long Lesion (LL) studies, designed to compare the performance of the TAXUS Liberte Atom and TAXUS Liberte Long Stents with Boston Scientific's first-generation TAXUS Express Stent. While the second-generation TAXUS Liberte Stent uses identical drug dose, polymer and release kinetics as the TAXUS Express Stent, it features thinner struts and a uniform architecture specifically designed for drug delivery.

One-year results from the TAXUS ATLAS SV and LL studies were published in the December 2008 issue of the Journal of American College of Cardiology. The studies both met their primary endpoint of non-inferior, nine-month, in-segment diameter stenosis versus the TAXUS Express Stent control group. They reported a significant reduction in small vessel in-stent restenosis and major adverse coronary events (MACE) in patients treated with the TAXUS Liberte Atom Stent, and a significantly reduced rate of myocardial infarction (heart attack) in patients with long lesions treated with the TAXUS Liberte Long Stent.

"In the ATLAS study, lower target lesion revascularization (TLR) rates contributed to a significantly lower rate of MACE, including heart attacks, with the TAXUS Liberte Atom Stent," said Mark A. Turco, M.D., Director of the Center for Cardiac and Vascular Research, Washington Adventist Hospital, and Co-Principal Investigator of the ATLAS trial. "The thinner struts of the TAXUS Liberte Atom Stent are designed to improve its deliverability and conformability, which is important when treating small vessels. The TAXUS Liberte Stent also features an advanced stent cell geometry that has been designed to allow for more consistent drug distribution."

Patients with small vessels treated with the TAXUS Liberte Atom Stent reported significantly lower nine-month angiographic in-segment late loss (0.16 mm vs. 0.32 mm, p=0.0146), reduced nine-month angiographic restenosis (18.5% vs. 32.7%, p=0.0219), reduced 12-month TLR (6.1% vs. 16.9%, p=0.0039), and reduced rates of stent thrombosis (0.4% vs. 1.5%, p=0.39). Patients with long lesions treated with the TAXUS Liberte Long Stent reported a significantly reduced 12-month rate of myocardial infarction (1.4% vs. 6.5%, p= 0.0246) as well as a trend toward fewer stent thromboses (0% vs. 0.7%, p=0.48).

"We are pleased to have a second-generation small vessel DES and the U.S. market's first long DES under review by the FDA," said Jim Tobin, President and Chief Executive Officer of Boston Scientific. "The rapid adoption of our recently approved TAXUS Express Atom Stent confirms the need for an expanded DES size matrix to treat the wide range of vessel anatomies seen in daily clinical practice."

Boston Scientific remains the overall drug-eluting stent market leader in the United States, with a 49 percent share of the market in December. The Company released three major DES products in the United States in 2008 with the PROMUS® Everolimus-Eluting Coronary Stent, the TAXUS Express Atom Stent and the TAXUS Liberte Stent. The Company expects to launch its third-generation drug-eluting stents -- the TAXUS Element™ Paclitaxel-Eluting Coronary Stent and the PROMUS Element Everolimus-Eluting Coronary Stent -- in Europe later this year.

The TAXUS Liberte Atom, TAXUS Liberte Long, TAXUS Element and PROMUS Element stents are investigational devices and are restricted under U.S. law to investigational use only.

The PROMUS® Stent is a private-labeled XIENCE™ V Everolimus-Eluting Coronary Stent System manufactured by Abbott and distributed by Boston Scientific. XIENCE™ V is a trademark of the Abbott Laboratories group of companies.

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.

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              Larry Neumann
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              Boston Scientific Corporation

SOURCE: Boston Scientific Corporation

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