Abbott Laboratories said its medical trial shows that its Xience Eluting coronary stent system delivers clinically superior benefits for patients compared to the Taxus paclitaxel-eluting coronary stent system from Boston Scientific Corp.

The Spirit III long-term trial of 1002 patients is part of the pre-market application of Xience V for approval to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

The Abbot Park, Illinois based company said its long term data from the trial showed a 45 percent reduction in the risk of major cardiac events, and a 32 percent reduction in the risk target of vessel failure at two years compared to Taxus.

The results were presented by Gregg W. Stone, M.D., the principal investigator of the company's Spirit III trial during the late-breaking clinical trials session at EuroPCR 2008 in Barcelona.

Not only did XIENCE V clearly differentiate itself from the TAXUS stent in the first year after treatment, it has now demonstrated even more positive effects at two years in the SPIRIT III trial, said Dr. Stone of Columbia University Medical Center who also serves as chairman of the Cardiovascular Research Foundation in New York.

Abbot shares rose $1.88, or 3.56 percent to $54.66 in mid-day trading on the New York Stock Exchange.

Shares of Boston Scientific fell 31 cents, or 2.31 percent to $13.10.

Medicine