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Drug-Eluting Balloons: New Route to Revascularization

A few companies with the foresight, even during the heyday of drug-eluting stents, to begin developing drug-eluting balloons are well-positioned to capture one of the next enormous growth markets in cardiology, according to "Current and Emerging US Markets for Myocardial Revascularization, Repair, and Regeneration Products and Technologies," a report recently published by the Medtech Insight division of FDC-Windhover.

Three years ago, drug-eluting stents (DES) took such hold of the interventional cardiology community and the development programs of the medical device companies that served them that there didn’t seem to be room for anything else when it came to restoring flow to blocked blood vessels. But the honeymoon is over. Experience has shown that drug-eluting stents aren’t suitable for a large number of types of patients and lesions—they’re ineffective for certain patients with diabetes or small vessels, bifurcated lesions or lesions in peripheral vessels.

What’s more, safety concerns have chased many clinicians away from DES. In 2006, data from the Swedish Coronary Angiography and...

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