Boston Scientific Corporation has launched its TAXUS Liberté paclitaxel-eluting coronary stent system in 18 countries. The TAXUS Liberté stent system features the Company's next-generation Liberté coronary stent.

"The launch of our TAXUS Liberté stent system represents another milestone in the field of drug-eluting stents," Jim Tobin, resident and CEO of Boston Scientific said adding, "It is the first drug-eluting coronary stent system to incorporate a next-generation stent. By combining our new Liberté stent with our ground-breaking TAXUS technology, we will now provide physicians the latest, state-of-the-art drug-eluting stent technology for the treatment of coronary artery disease."

The Liberté stent features the Veriflex stent design, a highly-flexible cell geometry with thin struts and uniform cell distribution. This new platform offers improved deliverability and conformability in challenging anatomy. It also features the enhanced TrakTip catheter tip, mounted on the Maverick2 delivery catheter, which provides better lesion crossability. In addition, TrakTip has a low lesion-entry profile, which further improves crossability.

The Company received the CE Mark for the bare metal Liberté stent system in December 2003 and plans to launch the TAXUS (drug-eluting) Liberté system in Europe later this year. In the US, Boston Scientific has announced enrolment in the ATLAS clinical trial, a pivotal study designed to support US FDA approval of the TAXUS Liberté stent system. Boston Scientific's first-generation drug-eluting stent system, the TAXUS Express2 paclitaxel-eluting coronary stent system, is the worldwide leader in the coronary stent market, the company says in its release.