Boston Scientific has launched its new balloon dilation catheter, Coyote, to treat patients undergoing peripheral angioplasty procedures below the knee.

The Coyote Balloon Catheter is intended to help physicians when treating patients who have challenging obstructive lesions in the lower extremities.

With an ultra-low profile of 0.0174 inches, it promises to be highly deliverable and offer rapid deflation.

Balloon catheters are often used during peripheral angioplasty and stenting procedures to open blocked arteries.

J. A. Mustapha, Director of Endovascular Intervention at Metro Health Hospital in Wyoming, Michigan, said: “Its performance gives me greater confidence in being able to effectively treat patients with difficult anatomy who suffer from peripheral artery disease.”

The device is the latest in a series of balloon catheter products developed by Boston Scientific.  In June, the company launched its Mustang PTA Balloon Catheter, a 0.035 inch percutaneous transluminal angioplasty (PTA) catheter designed to be used in a range of peripheral angioplasty procedures.

Jeff Mirviss, President of Boston Scientific's Peripheral Interventions Division, said the new product launch “builds on Boston Scientific's global leadership in low-profile peripheral balloon angioplasty”.

Up to 9 million US patients suffer from peripheral artery disease, which is associated with high rates of morbidity.

Boston Scientific has begun marketing the product in the US, Europe and other international markets.

Cardiac device corporation Boston Scientific will cut up to 1400 jobs in the US by the end of 2013, but its expansion in China will create 1000 new jobs.

The domestic job cuts are part of a programme to reduce the company’s annual costs by as much as $275 million.

The news came a day after Boston Scientific’s announcement that it plans to invest $150 million over the next five years to grow its business in China, where it hopes to create 1,000 jobs in manufacturing and clinician training.

Ray Elliott, CEO of Boston Scientific, commented that the US market for implantable defibrillators – a major source of revenue for the company – had been particularly weak in the last quarter, for reasons including concerns about possible over-use and cost pressures being exerted by hospitals.

Boston Scientific is also the leading supplier of drug-eluting stents (DES), the market for which has fallen both in the US and internationally since 2006 due to questions over safety.

The downturn in the domestic cardiac devices market has affected Boston Scientific’s US competitors also. Medtronic announced it was cutting 2000 jobs earlier this year, while Cordis is dropping out of the DES market altogether.

“The company anticipates the reduction of 1200 to 1400 positions worldwide,” said Boston Scientific spokesman Erik Kopp. “However, this will occur through a combination of factors, including employee attrition and targeted headcount reductions.”

Cordis, the creator of the first drug-eluting stent (DES), is pulling out of the DES business due to increased competition and stalled growth of what was once a blockbuster medical device.

The company, a Johnson & Johnson subsidiary, will discontinue sales of its Cypher (pictured) and Cypher Select stents by the end of this year and will cease development of its new Nevo stent.

J&J will restructure the Cordis business, cutting up to 1,000 jobs and closing its stent manufacturing plants in Puerto Rico and Ireland.

Cordis will continue to make stents for peripheral blood vessels, expanding its product portfolio for endovascular procedures and developing a new stent to treat aneurysms in the abdominal aorta. It also intends to develop its interventional cardiology business, Biosense Webster.

“Due to evolving market dynamics in the drug-eluting stent business, we see greater opportunities to benefit patients and grow our business in other areas of the cardiovascular device market,” said Seth Fischer, global chairman of Cordis. “We will continue to bring innovative cardiovascular solutions to patients in the future.”

The Nevo stent had shown favourable results in a 12-month clinical trial. Its new reservoir (RES) technology promised a new approach to stent drug delivery, with the drug released from within the stent struts. It has not yet been announced whether the stent will be sold to another company.

Once a market leader in the DES segment, Cordis has recently lost market share to competitors including Abbott Laboratories, Boston Scientific and Medtronic.

In addition, last month a US jury trial found Cordis guilty of infringing Boston Scientific’s patent for small-diameter stents, awarding damages of $19.5m; and this month the US Court of Appeals has upheld a decision ordering Cordis to pay $22m in damages to Spectranetics for infringement of a stent manufacture patent.

These problems are combined with a global decline in the DES market due to concerns over the risk of late thrombosis: a report by Swedish doctors in 2006 claimed that DES use increased the rate of these fatal events, causing sales of the device to fall from $5.1bn in 2005 to $3.9bn in 2007.

Cordis introduced the first drug-coated stent, the Cypher stent, in 2002 and, together with Boston Scientific, dominated the stent market until 2008. However, market research consultants Frost & Sullivan estimate that the company now holds only 10–15% of the market share.