J&J will raise production of its Cypher stent

MINNEAPOLIS -- Johnson & Johnson said it will ramp up production of its Cypher heart stent, which outperformed a competing device from Boston Scientific Corp. in three studies released this week.

Johnson & Johnson is working to expand capacity at its Puerto Rican factory where most of the devices are made, said Brian Firth, vice president of medical affairs for the company's Cordis unit. Firth said J&J can meet only about half the demand for drug-coated stents, which doctors use to prop open cleared heart arteries.

The Cypher now has about 40 percent of the $2.8 billion US market for the devices. Boston Scientific's Taxus stent has the rest. Increased production and the findings in the New England Journal of Medicine and the Journal of the American Medical Association may help the J&J product gain market share.

Shares of New Brunswick, N.J.-based Johnson & Johnson, the world's biggest medical device maker, rose 49 cents to $63.50 in New York Stock Exchange composite trading.

Natick, Mass.-based Boston Scientific, the world's biggest maker of heart stents, fell 51 cents to $27.52.

Johnson & Johnson's limited manufacturing capability reduces the threat to Boston Scientific's Taxus, said Phillip Nalbone, an analyst at RBC Capital Markets in San Francisco, in a note to clients Tuesday.

In three separate studies, patients given J&J's Cypher stent were less likely than those who received the Taxus device to require a repeat procedure to keep their heart arteries clear.

The findings were published simultaneously by the two journals, a rare occurrence.