Medtronic and Abbott Partner on Stent Program

Originally Published MX July/August 2002

BUSINESS NEWS

Medtronic and Abbott Partner on Stent Program

Playing catch-up in the race to capture a share of the rapidly developing market for drug-eluting vascular stents, Medtronic Inc. (Minneapolis) and Abbott Laboratories (Abbott Park, IL) have entered into a strategic partnership that promises to bring both companies to market sooner than either could have achieved on its own.

Under the partnership agreements, Abbott will grant Medtronic coexclusive access to its proprietary immunosuppression drug ABT-578 for use in Medtronic’s drug-eluting-stent program. Abbott’s ABT-578 is an analogue of the drug rapamycin, which has shown early promise in clinical trials of drug-eluting stents.

The agreements also call for Abbott to provide Medtronic with access to the phosphorylcholine (PC) coating it has licensed from Biocompatibles International plc (Farnham, Surrey, UK) for use in conjunction with ABT-578. PC is a biocompatible polymer copy of the outside surface of a red blood cell that mimics the structure of