Sep 24, 2009 (Datamonitor via COMTEX)
Angiotech Pharmaceuticals, a Canadian specialty pharmaceutical and medical device company, has reported that its corporate partner, Boston Scientific, has released encouraging data from the Taxus Atlas clinical program, a series of global, prospective, single-arm trials evaluating the Taxus Liberte paclitaxel-eluting stent system in a variety of lesions and patient groups.
Three-year results from the Taxus Atlas small vessel and long lesion trials continue to show significant advantages for the newer Taxus Liberte stent when compared to the first-generation Taxus Express stent, said Angiotech.
According to Angiotech, three-year results from the Taxus Atlas small vessel trial demonstrated a statistically significant reduction in the rate of target lesion revascularization (TLR) in small vessels treated with the Taxus Liberte atom stent as compared to the Taxus Express atom stent (10% versus 22.1%, p=0.008), representing a 55% relative risk reduction.
Additionally, the three-year MACE rate for the Taxus Liberte atom stent was 19.5% as compared to 32.4% for the Taxus Express atom stent (p=0.03), a relative reduction of 40%. The composite safety measure of cardiac death or myocardial infarction (MI) remained numerically lower at three years for the Taxus Liberte atom stent as compared to the Taxus Express atom stent (6.5% versus 7.4%, p=0.79).
In the Taxus Atlas long lesion trial, the Taxus Liberte long stent demonstrated significantly improved safety outcomes when treating long lesions compared to the Taxus Express stent. The rate of cardiac death showed a significant 78% reduction in patients treated with the Taxus Liberte long stent compared to the Taxus Express stent (1.5% versus 6.7%, p=0.03).
Overall MI showed a significant 72% reduction at three years in patients receiving a single Taxus Liberte long stent compared to a single Taxus Express stent (2.9% versus 10.4%, p=0.01). This improvement was primarily driven by a significant reduction in non-Q wave MI. The Taxus Liberte Long Stent had zero stent thrombosis at three years using either the protocol definition or the ARC definite/probable definition while the control Taxus Express stent reported 0.8% stent thrombosis (p=0.49) using the protocol definition and 3.9% (p=0.03) using the ARC definition.
Mark Turco, co-principal investigator of the trial, said: "The Taxus Atlas small vessel trial showed a sustained and significantly reduced risk of revascularization in small vessels for the Taxus Liberte atom stent as compared to the Taxus Express atom stent out to three years.
"Positive three-year data from the Taxus Atlas long lesion trial showed the Taxus Liberte long stent significantly reduces the risk of MI and cardiac death in long lesions compared to the Taxus Express stent, while reporting zero percent stent thrombosis. These data, combined with the previously reported reduction in nine-month late-loss, suggest that these improvements are likely the result of the thinner struts and improved stent geometry of the Taxus Liberte stent."
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