Boston Scientific buys Irish stent company

Boston Scientific Corp., the Natick medical device maker, said that it has acquired Labcoat Limited, a privately held Irish company focused on drug-eluting stent technology that represents a major advance in the field.

Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.

Stents are wire-mesh devices used to keep open arteries that have been unclogged during such medical procedures as angioplasties. The popular devices are a major source of revenue for Boston Scientific. Some stents, known as drug-eluting stents, are coated with medication. Early studies showed that drug-eluting stents helped reduce the rate at which arteries reclog. Some later studies, however, suggested that drug-eluting stents are no better at preventing heart attacks and death than bare-metal stents, which are often considerably cheaper.

In its press release today, Boston Scientific said that Labcoat has developed a novel technology for coating drug-eluting stents that uses precisely metered droplets of a biodegradable polymer and drug formulation to create a thin coating confined to the outer surface of a coronary stent. This approach is intended to provide the same degree of restenosis reduction as a conventional drug-eluting stent, but faster and more complete vessel healing after stent implantation.

"Boston Scientific has enjoyed an ongoing, productive relationship with Labcoat, and we look forward to building on our shared commitment to developing new drug-eluting stent technologies that improve patient outcomes," Boston Scientific president and chief executive Jim Tobin (shown at right in a company photo) said in a statement. "This technology represents a major advance for drug-eluting stents and should help us maintain our strong position in this market."

To read Boston Scientific's press release on the acquisition, please click here.

To read a Globe story from a year ago about the pros and cons of drug-eluting stents, please click here.
(By Chris Reidy, Globe staff)