Boston Scientific Says It Now Has More Diverse Product Line

Boston Scientific Corp.’s chief executive has said that the Natick, Mass.-based medical device manufacturer expects new products, especially the cardiac rhythm management business, to make up 38 percent of its revenue this fiscal year. 

Chief executive Jim Tobin said the company is no longer as dependent on its Taxus drug-coated stent business, which has seen growth stall amid competition and studies that suggested the devices used to open arteries that have been cleared of plaque could cause dangerous blood clots.

“Our business mix has shifted majorly from where we were three or four years ago. We are much better diversified,” Tobin said.

“We are in a position where we expect the CRM business to be the engine of growth for the near term based on new product flow,” he said of the business unit that sells devices such as pacemakers and implantable defibrillators.

“Over the last three years we have completely overhauled the business,” he said.

One progress milestone that was clearly a point of pride for Boston Scientific was Tobin’s noting of the recent passing of a one-year anniversary without a product recall.

“We had to change a lot,” Tobin admitted.

Tobin said its new Promus stent was “holding its own” with Abbott Laboratories Inc.’s successful and identical Xience stent, both of which were launched in July.

As part of its $27 billion, 2006 acquisition of Guidant, Boston Scientific sold Guidant’s stent business to Abbott, but retained the right to sell Xience under the Promus brand name with 40 percent of the profit going to Abbott.

A next generation stent called Promus Element will totally belong to Boston Scientific. That product is on track for launch in Europe this year, with a mid-2012 launch planned for the United States after a clinical trial that could begin as soon as this month, Tobin said.