(Reporting by Antonita Madonna Devotta in Bangalore; Editingby Ratul Ray Chaudhuri) Stocks Global Markets. * Research suggests devices work as promised Stocks | Global Markets * New study provides 'lot of reassurance' By Gene Emery BOSTON, May 6 (Reuters) - Heart stents coated with drugsare just as safe as uncoated ones and appear to keep bloodflowing to the heart muscle longer, dispelling earlier concernsabout their safety, Swedish researchers said on Wednesday. A study by the same researchers in December 2006 foundpeople who got the so-called drug-eluting stents were 18percent more likely to die within three years. That sent sales of the devices, made by Boston Scientific(BSX.N) and Johnson & Johnson (JNJ.N), into a tailspin. In September 2007, the Swedish team reported the safetydifference between drug-eluting and bare-metal stents hadevaporated. But the damage had been done as sales had slumpedby $1 billion Now, long-term results from the study, led by Dr. StefanJames of Uppsala University Hospital in Sweden and published inthe New England Journal of Medicine, confirm that the risk ofdeath or heart attack is no greater among those who gotdrug-eluting stents or older, bare-metal stents.
Stents are tiny, mesh tubes used to prop open diseasedheart arteries. Drug-eluting stents have medicine added to themto prevent scar tissue from clogging up the device, a commonproblem with the older, bare-metal variety. Results from the Swedish study of nearly 48,000 patientsnow suggest the devices work as promised, especially inhigh-risk patients, who had a 74 percent lower risk of having aclogged stent compared with similar patients who got a baremetal stent. Professor Franz Eberli from the University Hospital Zurichin Switzerland, said the original study caused "a huge firestorm" when it was first presented at a cardiology meeting inBarcelona in 2006. "The immediate impact was a decrease in the use ofdrug-eluting stents and a lot of scrutiny on safety," he saidin a statement.
Eberli said the latest paper looking at thesame group of patients "provides a lot of reassurance." 'REAL-WORLD STUDY' A smaller study in the same journal looking at how thedevices performed in heart attack patients showed no differencein the risk of death or heart attack. That study found the drug-eluting stent did a better jobthan bare-metal stents of keeping blood vessels flowingfreely. "Our study is in the highest-risk patients and it's arandomized trial. The Swedish study is important because it's a'real-world' study that included all comers," Dr. Gregg Stoneof Columbia University Medical Center said in a telephoneinterview. Stone's study, supported in part by a grant from BostonScientific, involved 3,602 people at 123 medical centers in 11countries who used the company's Taxus-brand stents.
At the 13-month mark, 10 percent of the blood vessels heldopen by the Taxus stents had clogged up by at least 50 percent,compared with 23 percent of the instances where the bare stentswere used. The drug-eluting stents cost significantly more than theolder uncoated stents, even though they do not seem to helppeople live longer, at least not in the short run. (Editing by Julie Steenhuysen and Peter Cooney) Stocks Global Markets. TAMPA, FL, May 06 (MARKET WIRE) -- (PINKSHEETS: TTIN) Transfer Technology International Corp., an emergingtechnology transfer company, announced today its first ever initialrevenues generated from the Ocean Grown Solutions licensing agreement.In December 2008, Transfer Technology International, Inc. entered into alicensing partnership with Ocean Grown Solutions, LLC. to market anddistribute their line of eco-friendly organic plant and crop nutrientsknown in the market place as Ocean Grown. Successful marketing and salesefforts have produced TTI's first-ever initial sales and revenues in thefirst quarter of 2009 and have continued into the second quarter as well.The launch of Organic Products International, a wholly owned subsidiary ofTTIN, will provide the platform for future sales growth in all productcategories developed or licensed by Transfer Technology International.Chris Trina, Chairman and CEO, states, "The agricultural, golf course andoutdoor sports complex communities are extremely excited about the OceanGrown product line Crop testing has proven the effectiveness of theseproducts.