Boston Scientific Readies for Trial

Boston Scientific Corporation (BSX - Analyst Report) announced its first patient enrollment for the MADIT-RIT clinical trial. The company is also the exclusive sponsorship for the program. The new trial follows three previous landmark trials- MADIT, MADIT II and MADIT-CRT. 

The MADIT-RIT trial is a prospective, randomized study that will determine which device programming strategy best minimizes the occurrence of unnecessary therapy in patients with a heart device implanted in their bodies - an implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD) or cardiac resynchronization therapy defibrillator (CRT-D) - and have no history of cardiac arrest. 

It was observed that unnecessary therapy has a detrimental effect on a patient’s quality of life, especially patients with no cardiac arrest history. The trial will enroll 1,500 patients at roughly 75 centers globally. We think that the positive outcome of the MADIT-RIT trial will identify the correct heart device with the right programming inbuilt in it. 

This will eliminate unnecessary therapy and improve the patient’s quality of life. Boston Scientific also recently delivered positive final results from its landmark MADIT-CRT trial. The MADIT trial was conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of the company’s CRT-Ds, compared to the traditional ICDs. 

The primary endpoint was met with CRT-Ds resulted in a 34% reduction in the risk of first heart failure in asymptomatic and mild (NYHA Class I and II) heart failure patients, compared to standard ICDs. Boston Scientific Corporation is a manufacturer of medical devices and products used in a broad range of interventional medical specialties. The company faces significant competition across its product portfolio. 

The primary competitors included Johnson & Johnson (JNJ - Analyst Report), Medtronic Inc. (MDT - Analyst Report), Abbott Laboratories (ABT - Analyst Report) and St. Jude Medical Inc. (STJ - Analyst Report). Based on the company’s performance in the second quarter of 2009, we have assigned a ‘Neutral’ recommendation to the stock.

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