CYPHER Sirolimus-Eluting Stent Comparsd Well Againat BMS at Six-Years

The CYPHER Sirolimus-eluting Coronary Stent offered by Cordis (a Johnson & Johnson company) was the first drug-eluting stent approved for the U.S. market when it was approved by the FDA in 2003.

In the first six-year follow-up of a pivotal study of any drug-eluting stent, the SIRIUS (Sirolimus-coated BX VELOCITY Balloon-Expandable Stent in Treatment of Patients with De Novo Coronary Artery Lesions) Trial presented at the Cardiovascular Revascularization Therapies conference in March 2009, no differences between the CYPHER and the bare metal stents were found in the safety measures of myocardial infarction, death or stent thrombosis. CYPHER also had significantly lower rates of target vessel failure (TVF), the primary endpoint of the trial, than those who received the BMS (26.1 percent for the CYPHER stent versus 39.9 percent for the BMS).

CYPHER also demonstrated lower rates of TLR and major adverse cardiac events (MACE) compared to the BMS. There was no significant difference in the overall rate of stent thrombosis between the CYPHER and the BMS.

For more information: www.cypherstent.com