Johnson & Johnson, the
world’s largest maker of medical devices, has about 40,000 U.S.
patients lining up for its next big product. Some are risking
heart attacks while they wait, doctors said.
The so-called Cypher stent, a tiny mesh tube that props open
once-clogged arteries, is coated with a drug to keep more blood
vessels clear. Studies found the product to be so much better than
older stents that patients are postponing critical artery-clearing
procedures, such as angioplasty, to hold out for the U.S. approval
of the Johnson & Johnson device.
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“We’ve had a couple crash and burns, where we said let’s
wait it out, and then they’ve had a heart attack while they are
waiting,” said Richard Schatz, a Scripps Clinic cardiologist and
co-inventor of the original stent, introduced by Johnson & Johnson
in 1994. “We’ve been thinking since March that (approval) would
be right around the corner. We’ve been putting off as many
(procedures) as we can.”
The Cypher, which investors originally expected to win U.S.
approval by last month, will probably double the $2.4 billion
stent market by the end of next year, analysts say. The pool of
waiting patients alone is worth some $120 million in initial sales
based on an estimated Cypher price of about $3,000.
The Scripps Clinic cardiology center in San Diego has a
waitlist of at least 73 patients and is adding new names daily,
said Schatz, who no longer works with Johnson & Johnson. At Mt.
Sinai Hospital in New York, there are about 50 patients on the
Cypher backlog, and two have had heart attacks while waiting, said
Samin Sharma, director of interventional cardiology.
Bloomberg News
