DES, more bad news

The Wall Street Journal, probably an important "medical" journal in USA reported an alleged drop in sales of Drug-Eluting Stents in USA, as a recent article by the Cedar Sinai Medical Center seems to suggest that DES is not as good as they were made out to be, including questioning the benefit of DES to reduce re-stenosis.

This is certainly a report that goes against the many other reports and large scale clinical trials which reported obvious benefit in the use of DES to reduce stent re-stenosis. Even our own experience would confirm the very low rate of restenosis (clinical restenosis of about 3.6 %). I wonder why the article was reported in the Annals in Internal Medicine, as oppose to the Circulation, or the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, or any other more "cardiac" journal.

Nonetheless, I must say that, it does remind those of us who implant DES, to think twice when we are deciding to use a DES. Whether JnJ Cordis (cypher stent) or Boston Scientific (Taxus stent) are losing money, I am not sure. It appears that their shares on Wall Street are losing value. It may be worth while to note that there are many more DES awaiting FDA approval, including the Endeavor stent (AVE Metronic), the Xscient V (Guidant, now Abott Vascular), and the Genous stent (Niche Medical).

There are many more but in lesser stages of development. The whole DES market is actually very large, probably worth billions of dollars. It is good to note that Wall Street has now become another criteria for good medical practice (the voice of the financial market). I am sure, that all things said and done, the DES is here to stay. I don't think that we are going back to bare metal stent, except for reason of economics. JnJ Cordis and Boston Scientific can rest well, knowing that there is more money to be made from their DES'.