ART's stent superior than other bioresorbable stents

Arterial Remodeling Technologies ("ART") disclosed today new data related to its bioresorbable stent platform—additional data that further validates the Company's innovative approach to simultaneously balance biocompatibility, biomechanics and bioresorption within a bioresorbable PLA (polylactic acid) stent. The new data show that the ART stent scaffold can be overinflated by more than 25% without cracking or crazing, and is thus designed to avoid the serious problem of malapposition associated with other bioresorbable stents that was documented at TCT 2010.

“These new data underscore another competitive advantage of our next-generation of bioresorbable stents that are being carefully developed to the specific needs of cardiologists”

Disclosure of the new ART data at ICI was by Antoine Lafont, M.D., Ph.D., Head, Interventional Cardiology Department, Georges Pompidou Hospital (Paris); Past Chairman, Interventional Cardiology Group, European Society of Cardiology (ESC).

"These new data underscore another competitive advantage of our next-generation of bioresorbable stents that are being carefully developed to the specific needs of cardiologists," said Machiel van der Leest, CEO. During his career he has developed and successfully introduced 15 Class III medical devices that required pre-market approval and a scientific review to ensure safety and effectiveness.

With conventional stents a gap between the vessel and the stent can manifest, and this "malapposition" of stent struts within the vessel has been shown to occur in conventional stent placements and is a significant risk factor in stent thrombosis. Additionally, data reported at TCT 2010 related to other bioresorbable stents in development showed that when these stent struts have been overinflated to compensate for potential malapposition, they have cracked or crazed, and which may lead to another life-threatening coronary event.

ART's stent is designed to have several competitive benefits over existing bioresorbable stents in development: (1) faster and smoother resorption; (2) a non-crystalline polymer; (3) superior preserved material, without harmful by-products; (4) better, homogeneous stress diffusion; and (5) crack- and crazing-free expansion. In addition, the ART device is designed to be delivered by conventional stenting techniques, is balloon-expandable and meets the market standard of 6-French compatibility.

According to iData Research, the U.S. market for interventional cardiology is expected to expand to nearly $5 billion by 2017, fueled by increasing drug-eluting stent sales and the emergence of bioabsorbable and bifurcated stents.

ART's novel biopolymers have been developed in conjunction with one of the world's leading authorities in polymer chemistry, Professor Michel Vert, who is Former Director of the Research Center for Artificial Biopolymers at France's National Center for Scientific Research (Centre National de Recherche Scientifique/CNRS).