Boston Scientific Corporation BSX recently announced the first successful implantation of its WATCHMAN Left Atrial Appendage (LAA) Closure heart implant device in 3 patients in the U.S.
Remarkably, this news comes only a week after the device won the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval for its commercial availability.
Boston Scientific’s WATCHMAN device is a first-of-its-kind catheter-delivered implant device that blocks the LAA in patients with non-valvular atrial fibrillation (AF) – to avert the migration of blood clots from the LAA. This way, this implant device reduces the risk of stroke occurrence in higher risk non-valvular AF patients, acting as a unique substitute to conventional long-term warfarin therapy.
Currently, AF – the most common cardiac arrhythmia – affects more than 5 million citizens in the U.S. alone, who are particularly prone to stroke with a 70% chance of being severely affected by it.
In non-valvular AF patients, LAA is believed to be the source of stroke-causing clots in more than 90% of the cases. Until now, most of the AF patients were treated using long-term standard drugs like warfarin therapy.
Despite its proven effectiveness, almost 40% of the AF patients in need of an anticoagulant therapy refuse to undergo traditional warfarin therapy, due to the fear of side effects that include subsequent bleeding risks associated with this therapy.
Results from both the 18 month follow-up PREVAIL trial and the final 5 year follow-up in the PROTECT AF trial, conducted by Boston Scientific, demonstrated the superior clinical efficacy of the WATCHMAN device in treating patients with non valvular AF, who are more prone to ischemic stroke and systemic embolism, over traditional warfarin therapy.
Boston Scientific's WATCHMAN device provides the much-needed breakthrough alternative treatment that can reduce the risk of stroke in AF patients in a better way, while maintaining necessary levels of safety and effectiveness during the procedure. Currently, the WATCHMAN is the foremost device in percutaneous left atrial appendage closure globally and has been used in the treatment of more than 10,000 patients worldwide.
In a separate development, a meta-analysis of all of the randomized trial data demonstrated that while warfarin therapy promotes ischemic stroke reduction, the WATCHMAN device provided patients with a comparable protection against all-cause stroke and statistically superior reductions in hemorrhagic stroke, disabling stroke, and cardiovascular death compared to warfarin in a follow up, over the long run.
Currently, the global atrial fibrillation market is expected to grow at an annual compounded rate of 13% and reach a total size of more than $16 billion in terms of revenues by 2020. The Watchman Heart Device is expected to contribute $500 million in additional annual revenues to Boston Scientific.
We believe the successful implantation of this heart implant device will increase the demand for this device going forward, given the fact that the AF patient population is expected to cross the 10 million mark by 2050. This, in turn, will mean higher revenues for Boston Scientific.
Currently, the stock carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). Some top-ranked medical products stocks are SurModics, Inc. SRDX, Abaxis, Inc. ABAX and Capricor Therapeutics, Inc. CAPR. While SurModics holds a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), Abaxis and Capricor sport a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).
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