Pre-clinical Evaluation of a Novel Biodegradable Coronary Stent Prototype

The first three generations of cardiovascular permanent bare metal stent (BMS) and drug
eluting stent (DES) technology have developed significantly over the last twenty years with
advances in stent material, design and drug elution aimed at improving stent deliverability,
safety and long term efficacy. However, the clinical performance of these permanent metallic
implants is not considered ideal as they can induce either re-narrowing (restenosis) in the case
of BMS or late clotting (thrombosis) in the case of DES to diseased coronary arteries. The
next generation of stents will be biodegradable thereby offering additional options to
overcome the limitations of permanent stents for the treatment of occlusive coronary artery
disease. The ideal biodegradable stent material is fully biodegradable, vascular compatible,
high radial strength, and visible using standard X-Ray and MRI methodology. These stents
allow arteries to heal and then they slowly disappear. The high cost and the clinical limitations
of the currently available biodegradable stent are restricting its adoption into clinical practice.
Arterius is the only UK-based SME developing the next generation of novel biodegradable
cardiovascular stents to address these limitations with aim of significantly improving
outcomes for more patients. Arterius now wishes to use newly-developed optimised stent
production techniques to conduct pre-clinical evaluations of this novel prototype device.
Development funding support from TSB under the SMART Scheme will significantly help
the company to be ahead of the competition and to continue the current collaborate with the
three universities in the UK (namely Bradford, Southampton and Sheffield) to develop this
exciting project further and to commence clinical trials by 2015.