Millennium Research Group, a Decision Resources, Inc. company, has conducted a detailed analysis of the interventional cardiology market in its US Markets for Interventional Cardiology Devices 2007 report. The report indicates that despite a difficult 2006, the drug-eluting stent (DES) market will rebound from 2008 with the emergence of new DES competitors, Medtronic and Abbott Vascular. Both Medtronic's Endeavor DES and Abbott Vascular's Xience have successfully entered the European market, and will take significant market share in 2007.

DES penetration in the US decreased almost 20 per cent over 2006 from a high of 89 per cent at the beginning of the year due to the release of clinical data linking DES to late stent thrombosis. In patients at high risk for late stent thrombosis, physicians who had previously used a DES often chose bare-metal stents (BMS) to be safe, reawakening the market for BMS which grew over 15 per cent in 2007.

"While 2006 was a tough year for DES, we see this as a relatively short-term decline," says Bina Mistry, analyst at MRG. "With new competitors entering the market and the continual release of positive clinical data, physician preference will revert back to DES, significantly expanding the market. We forecast the US market will follow the same path as Europe, with the DES market set to record notable market share shifts."

US Markets for Interventional Cardiology Devices 2007 report is the latest of MRG's coverage of the global interventional cardiology market that also includes Europe, Japan, Latin America, Asia Pacific, and the Middle East. Besides DES, this report series covers markets for coronary stents, PTCA balloon catheters, PTCA guide-wires, guiding catheters, diagnostic catheters, IVUS catheters, introducer sheaths and embolic protection devices. Companies covered in this report series include Boston Scientific, Cordis (Johnson and Johnson), Abbott Vascular, Medtronic, and many others.

Millennium Research Group, a Decision Resources, Inc. company, is the global authority on medical technology market intelligence and a leading provider of strategic information to the health care sector.