A Medical Device Daily

Boston Scientific (Natick, Massachusetts) said it has completed enrollment in the PERSEUS trial, designed to evaluate the company's third-generation Taxus Element paclitaxel-eluting coronary stent.

The PERSEUS clinical program has enrolled nearly 1,500 patients at 100 U.S. and international centers since July 2007, and will compare the Taxus Element stent to the prior-generation Taxus Express2 stent marketed in the U.S. since 2004.

The company said it plans to develop additional versions of the Element platform, including next generations of a bare-metal stent and an everolimus-eluting Promus Element stent system.

"We are pleased to reach this important milestone in the development of our third-generation drug-eluting stent, at a time when most companies are still introducing their first-generation stents in the U.S.," said Keith Dawkins, MD, senior VP and associate chief medical officer for Boston Scientific.

He added, "Boston Scientific is the only company to offer interventionalists a choice between two different drugs in a DES platform. The advanced platinum chromium alloy and new balloon catheter offered in the Element system will further strengthen our deep portfolio of coronary stent technologies."

The PERSEUS clinical program will evaluate the efficacy and safety of the Taxus Element stent in two studies.