BioCentury
ARTICLE | Product Development

Guidant spreading its stent bets

April 1, 2002 8:00 AM UTC

Guidant Corp.'s decision to license Novartis AG's everolimus anti-proliferative compound for use in drug-eluting stents shouldn't be seen as a vote of no confidence in its Achieve paclitaxol-eluting stents, according to the company. Instead, GDT is betting that different anti-proliferatives will work better in different patients, which would give it multiple, targeted marketing opportunities.

"You could certainly look at this deal as enabling us to get more shots on goal. But it is also an example of not taking the same shot twice," said John Capek, president of vascular intervention at GDT. Under the same philosophy, GDT had pursued clinical trials of an actinomycin D eluting stent, but dropped it when preliminary results showed it was not effective in preventing restenosis (see BioCentury, March 11). ...