Boston Scientific Device Slows Heart Failure in Study (Update3)

June 23 (Bloomberg) -- Boston Scientific Corp.’s tool for synchronizing heart contractions slowed the progression of heart failure when implanted in patients with few or no symptoms, according to a study that could expand use of the devices.

The devices reduced deaths and medical treatments for heart failure by 29 percent compared with standard defibrillators, Boston Scientific, based in Natick, Massachusetts, said today in a statement. The company-funded study followed more than 1,800 patients in 14 countries, Boston Scientific said.

Boston Scientific’s study looked at whether its $30,000 cardiac resynchronization therapy defibrillator could help patients in early stages of heart failure. The devices are approved only for patients in late stages of the disease, though about 70 percent of heart failure patients in the U.S. have early phases, Boston Scientific said.

“This is the first positive clinical trial for the industry in five years and is expected to help expand the patient pool as physicians look to intervene earlier,” Joanne K. Wuensch, an analyst at BMO Capital Markets Corp. in New York, said today in a note to clients.

Heart failure, the irreversible end to a diseased heart, isn’t a one-time event like a heart attack. It’s a gradual weakening of the heart’s pumping power, leaving sufferers with poor circulation that leads to shortness of breath, painfully swollen legs and fluids that pool in the lungs. About 22 million people worldwide have the disease, according to Boston Scientific.

Market Expansion

The study may help expand a $6 billion market for heart rhythm devices led by Medtronic Inc., St. Jude Medical Inc. and Boston Scientific, Rick Wise, a Leerink Swann & Co. analyst, said in a note to clients yesterday.

Boston Scientific rose 27 cents, or 2.9 percent, to $9.51 at 4 p.m. in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. St. Jude, of St. Paul, Minnesota, gained 2.6 percent to $40.55, and Medtronic, of Minneapolis, increased less than 1 percent to $33.37.

“The results, I think, will have a significant impact on guidelines and indications for these devices,” said Richard Page, head of cardiology at the University of Washington School of Medicine in Seattle and president of the Heart Rhythm Society, a Washington D.C.-based advocacy group.

If the results are confirmed by other scientists and regulators, it will enable doctors to tell eligible patients that “they’re not only going to live longer, but they may actually live better,” Page said today in a telephone interview.

Out of Sync

When the chambers of a failing heart fall out of sync, the muscle generates less pressure to circulate blood in the body. Cardiac rhythm therapy defibrillators, or CRTs, send subtle electrical signals from a cell-phone sized generator to stimulate the chambers and keep them pumping in unison. Like standard defibrillators, CRT devices can deliver a high-powered electrical jolt to reset a dangerously erratic heartbeat.

Today’s study may help Boston Scientific win Food and Drug Administration approval to treat patients with early heart failure and increase the market for all CRT devices by as much as $600 million by 2012, Michael Weinstein, an analyst at JPMorgan Chase & Co. in New York, said today in a note to clients.

Medtronic Study

A Medtronic study in March found that its CRT device slowed heart failure deaths and hospitalizations by about two-thirds compared with patients taking beta blockers and other heart drugs. That study followed 262 patients. Eleven percent of the patients suffered complications, mainly wires that punctured or dislodged from the heart muscle.

“This achievement has implications for the industry as a whole, and we welcome the added evidence for CRT effectiveness in this heart failure patient population,” said Catherine Peloquin, a spokeswoman for Medtronic, in an e-mailed statement. Medtronic plans to seek FDA approval to market its rhythm device for patients with mild heart failure symptoms.

Full results of the Boston Scientific study probably will be presented at a conference in September and published in a scientific journal later this year, Arthur Moss, the study’s lead investigator and a professor of cardiology at University of Rochester Medical Center in Rochester, New York, said today in a telephone interview.

To contact the reporter on this story: Tom Randall in New York at trandall6@bloomberg.net.