Japanese patients affected by ischemic heart disease can finally be treated with Abbott's Absorb bioresorbable heart stent.
Abbott Laboratories (ABT, Financial) announced through PRNewswire that the Japanese Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare has approved the commercialization of the vascular stent in the Land of the Rising Sun today.
Absorb is “the only fully dissolving heart stent approved in Japan for the treatment of heart disease,” according to Abbott.
Instead of being composed of metal, the Absorb GT1 Bioresorbable Vascular Scaffold (BVS) system is made of a material that is completely dissolved by the blood flow after a few years, facilitating the artery’s healing and minimizing the risk of additional surgery to remove the blockage that a metallic stent may cause over time.
Absorb is more than a device-free artery:
“The Absorb GT1 (Absorb) BVS is acutting-edge advance in percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI). This breakthrough technology repairs and revascularizes like the best-in-class XIENCE drug-eluting stent. Unlike a drug-eluting stent that is a permanent metallic implant, Absorb is naturally resorbed in the body, leaving nothing behind.
The Absorb bioresorbable technology offers more than a device-free artery. Absorb also restores vasomotor function and pulsatility, allowing the artery to more naturally regulate blood flow.” (Abbott Labs)
This is great news for health care operators and ischemic heart patients in Japan, a country where, according to the company and the Japanese Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare, about 1.73 million people are affected by heart disease. In Japan, approximately 72,000 people die every year due to coronary artery disease.
The bioresorbable heart stent was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in the U.S. in July 2016.
On Nov. 4, Abbott Labs (ABT, Financial) closed at $39.09, up 71 cents (1.84%), with a volume of 8,748,052 shares traded on the New York Stock Exchange. The stock lost 12.96% and was outperformed by 15% by the S&P 500 year to date.
Disclosure: I have no positions in Abbott Laboratories.
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