New Coronary Stent From Medtronic

The cobalt-based Driver coronary stent developed by US-based Medtronic Inc, one of the leading medical devices manufacturers in the world with annual revenues of $ 7.7 billion, was implanted in a cardiac patient here today at Usha Mullapudi Cardiac Centre.

Priced at around Rs 50,000 and claimed to be 50 per cent cheaper than some of the drug coated stents, the Driver coronary stent has been designed to produce improved clinical outcomes for patients through the use of cobalt alloy in combination with the company's modular technology, said Narsing Rao, the medical advisor of Medtronic.

Stent is a tiny cylindrical mesh tube that helps keep open an artery following a balloon angioplasty to heart to restore blood flow to the deceased vessels.

 

The Driver stent's advanced cobalt alloy surpasses the limitations of stainless steel stents by making possible very strong, ultra-thin struts that offer flexibility and excellent vessel support, Narsing Rao said.

The stent was launched in Europe about five months back with the required regulatory approvals and over 20,000 stents were implanted so far, according to Rao.

The Medtronic official said that the company had filed an application before the US FDA with the required clinical data for its approval to launch in US. Medtronic is currently in the process of launching the stent across various centres in the India.