Japanese Company Vies for Leadership in European Bioabsorbable Stent Market

The hype over “bioabsorbable” stents has heightened after Abbott’s vascular stents obtained a CE mark last year and will reportedly soon be available in Europe. But, here in Japan, a very small company has already developed its own version of bioabsorbable stents. The Japanese stents garnered a CE mark in 2007, and are now sold in 11 European countries and Turkey.  

It’s amazing that the virtually unknown Kyoto-based company is in the vanguard on bioabsorbable stent development.

When I interviewed company president and co-developer of these novel stents, he showed great pride and confidence in his stents, but he also suggested he wanted to keep a low profile in the U.S. Why is that? He replied jokingly, “We don’t want to be like Gulliver in Brobdingnag, [the fictional land in Jonathan Swift's satirical novel Gulliver's Travels occupied by giants.]”

For more about what he has to say about bioabsorbable vascular stents, please read my blog post on emdt.co.uk.

—Miki Anzai