Opto Circuits (India) Ltd's wholly-owned subsidiary EuroCor GmbH has received CE (Communité European) mark approval for marketing and sale of its new polymer-free Paclitaxel-eluting coronary stent system, Taxcor- I.

This product, which is used in Coronary Angioplasty (Percutaneous Transluminal Coronary Angioplasty- PTCA) is a second-generation innovation of EuroCor's present blockbuster DES (drug-eluting stent) product- Taxcor, an Opto Circuts release said.

EuroCor GmbH is a Germany-based manufacturer of cardiovascular devices, in particular coronary stents. OCI acquired EuroCor in December '05, extending OCI's product mix to invasive medical devices.

Explaining the unique technology of this system, Vinod Ramnani, chairman & managing director, OCI, said, "Polymeric drug carriers, coated on the stents, have been known to cause blood clot formations, also leading to late thrombotic complications. Eurocor is the first manufacturer of a drug-eluting coronary stent system which uses a new, polymer-free drug attachment technology. Taxcor I, is thus, a path-breaking technology in the field of DES products. It considerably enhances patient safety and completely eliminates any polymer-related late adverse effects unlike many other DES offerings from global giants."

In Taxcor I, the drug is loaded into micro porous cavities (based on an open cellular fully carbonized stent surface). A protective layer of specific amino acid molecules avoids rapid drug elution and within 20 days, it provides for a moderate drug release to the stented coronary artery lesion. Thanks to this clinically advanced technology, the use of Taxcor I reduces drug dosage from 1.0µg/mm² down to 0.5µg/mm²; this in turn eliminates any drug-related inflammation score.

"Taxcor and now Taxcor I, are being aggressively marketed by OCI through various distribution agreements (presently around 26) in Europe, the Middle East and Asia. The CE accreditation only makes things easier for us to now make a dent into newer markets like Hong Kong, Pakistan, India, Taiwan, China, Spain, and Belgium, " added Ramnani.

The present world market for coronary stents is around $ 8 billion. Stents are used for successful re-opening of narrowed coronary arteries, for full blood flow restoration, to avoid bypass surgery. The latest generation are Drug-eluting coronary stents; these optimize long-term patient results by a drug which is gradually delivered locally to the stented coronary artery lesion site. Such drug reduces any hyperplasia reaction which may be caused by the stenting procedure.