Boston Scientific Corp. (NYSE:BSX) set out to compare its new Promus Element drug-eluting stent system with Abbott’s (ABT) Xience Prime.The BSX-funded study will evaluate coronary revascularization outcomes in a 2,980-patient sample across 50 sites in France,Germany,Italy,Spainand the U.K.Former iterations of the Promus line were private-label versions of Abbott’s Xience V drug-eluting stents, but the Natick, [...]

Highlights of the important and the interesting from the world of healthcare:Onemonthto apply for $5 million: Small drug and biomedical research firms will have a one-month window to apply for federal tax credits (or grants) that show “significant potential” to produce new drugs or meet unmet medical needs. Firms with less than 250 employees can [...]

Abbott (NYSE:ABT) won PMA clearance from the Food & Drug Administration for its TECNIS Multifocal 1-Piece intraocular lens, which the federal watchdog approved for treating cataract patients.The Abbott Park, Ill.-based medical products conglomerate said the lens, which is implanted in the eye after the removal of the cataract-occluded natural lens, corrects presbyopia. That’s a condition [...]

Local medical device companies, including Boston Scientific Corp., Lumen Biomedical Inc. and ev3 Inc. in Plymouth, Minn. may benefit from a major government-funded study that concludes carotid stents are equally safe and effective as surgery to unblock clogged neck arteries.The long-awaited results from the Carotid Revascularization EndarterectomyVersus Stenting Trial (CREST), led by a Mayo Clinic [...]

A federal judge denied Johnson & Johnson’s bid to revive its $5.5 billion anti-competition and breach of contract lawsuit against Boston Scientific Corp. and Abbott over its abortive attempt to acquire Guidant Corp. in 2005.

Medical device makers, health information technology providers and AdvaMed together spent more than $20 million lobbying Congress, the White House and the Food & Drug Administration during the fourth quarter.

Fourth-quarter and full-year sales for Abbott’s vascular medical device segment rose 9 percent and 20 percent, respectively.

A federal judge in Delaware declared invalid a quartet of Johnson & Johnson’s Cordis Corp. subsidiary’s patents for drug-eluting stents, canceling a trial set for next month in a patent infringement lawsuit filed by Boston Scientific.

Cordis Corp. will defend the Cypher drug-eluting stent on its home turf in New Jersey in a patent infringement case against Boston Scientific Corp. and Abbott Laboratories.

Some of the biggest names in medical devices are embroiled in a whistleblower lawsuit accusing them of deliberately promoting the off-label use of biliary stents to treat cardiovascular conditions in hundreds of thousands of patients.