Boston Scientific is confident of establishing itself as the clear market leader in the manufacture of stent devices for use in medical procedures, with a new device potentially providing the impetus it needs.

The US firm is currently engaged in a head-to-head with rival firm Johnson & Johnson, as both players look to capitalise on the growing demand for cardiac stents.

Key to the development of Boston's place in the market will be the performance of its new stent, the Barracuda, which Bloomberg reports will use a platinum alloy.

Together with the addition of guide wires the thin struts inside the stent should make the device easier to fit.

Boston says it plans to have the new product on the market by 2008 in Europe and will see to do the same in the US the following year.

Boston's Taxus stent currently accounts for over half of the market in the US, with the chief operating officer Paul LaViolette claiming the efforts to make in-roads by J&J have had little effect as the firm targets further expansion.

Speaking at the annual American College of Cardiology Scientific Session in Atlanta, Mr LaViolette said the firm was "not seeing any erosion whatsoever in the face of the increasing supply of Cypher by J&J".

He added that J&J's rival stent had also failed to make significant gains despite a series of campaigns attacking Taxus, pointing to two quarters in a row with virtually no change in market share.

This week Boston also revealed that it had overseen encouraging results from a clinical trial of the stents in a paclitaxel-eluting system as part of cardiac treatment.



Ÿ Adfero Ltd