ちょっと先日、アメリカの学会成績で、株価の上下なんて言ったので、その結果だけご報告。８ヶ月の再狭窄率でボストンサイエンティフィック社のTaxusよりもアボット社のXienceステントの方が良かったようで…株価は素直に５％上昇、過去１年で最高の株価になったそうです＞アボット社。そして変わりにボストンサイエンティフィック社の株価は７．５％下落して過去２年で最低価格に・・・。アナリストの事前の予想は当たってしまいました。一報目の文末に・・・
the drug-coated stent business is considered the most lucrative(利益の上がる).
と文末に書かれていますね・・・このXienceステント、米国や日本では承認がまだですが、承認審査が進むかもしれません(謎)。
Abbott shares surge on upbeat view of its experimental stents
Bruce Japsen
Tribune staff reporter
Published March 26, 2007, 12:17 PM CDT
Shares of Abbott Laboratories' soared nearly 5 percent today, hitting a 52-week high, in the wake of news that its experimental drug-coated device used to unclog heart arteries was more effective at keeping arteries from narrowing again than the U.S. market leader.
Patients' arteries treated with Abbott's drug-coated stent, known as Xience, had less "re-narrowing" after eight months than Boston Scientific Corp.'s Taxus device, the North Chicago-based medical product giant said in a study released over the weekend at the American College of Cardiology's annual meeting in New Orleans.
Investors pushed up the price of Abbott's stock on the news. Shares rose $2.60 a share to $56.46 in early-afternoon trading on the New York Stock Exchange. This morning, shares jumped as high as $56.68 a share--a new 52-week high.
Drug-coated stents are the next generation of a metal device used to keep arteries open after they are cleared via angioplasty procedures, the so-called balloon used at the tip of a catheter to push through plaque in the artery before a stent, a wire mesh device, is put into place.
The drug coating on devices like Xience and Taxus is designed to keep the arteries open. Arteries treated with the earlier generation of bare metal stents had the tendency to close in some patients. The drug coating is designed to inhibit the development of scar tissue and therefore a re-clogging of the vessel.
The latest findings may help Abbott once the company enters the $6 billion worldwide drug-coated stent market currently dominated by Taxus and Johnson & Johnson's Cypher. There have been small risks of blood clots, but hospitals continue to prefer the new drug-coated variety over bare metal versions.
Wall Street analysts seem to think Abbott's product could overtake the market from both Taxus and Cypher should it be approved by the Food and Drug Administration, citing the effectiveness of Xience in U.S. and European clinical trials.
"Results from Abbott's US and European [trials] should catapult the company's Xience product into a leadership position in both markets come 2008," said Michael Weinstein, analyst at JPMorgan in New York.
The study, which was funded by Abbott and conducted by researchers outside of the company, will be used to bolster Abbott's application to the Food and Drug Administration. Abbott is expected later this year to submit Xience for U.S. approval for possible marketing in 2008.
The study is also important because Xience was considered a crown jewel of Abbott's $4.1 billion purchase of Guidant Corp's vascular device business last year. Although Abbott gained a host of stents and other devices used to unclog arteries to the heart and brain, the drug-coated stent business is considered the most lucrative.
Mon Mar 26, 2007 1:38pm ET
By Susan Kelly
CHICAGO (Reuters) - Boston Scientific Corp.'s (BSX.N: Quote, Profile , Research) stock slid to a 4-1/2-year low on Monday while shares of Abbott Laboratories Inc. (ABT.N: Quote, Profile , Research) jumped after a study showed Abbott's drug-coated stent was better at treating clogged heart arteries.
"Over the weekend, the competitive landscape in drug-eluting stents was effectively turned on its head," JP Morgan analyst Michael Weinstein said in a note to clients.
Abbott released data at a major medical meeting on Saturday that showed its Xience drug-eluting stent was superior to Boston Scientific's market-leading Taxus stent in both its primary goal of reduced reclogging and a secondary goal of fewer adverse cardiac events.
Shares of Boston Scientific fell $1.15 or 7.56 percent to $14.07 in trade on the New York Stock Exchange, while Abbott's stock was up $2.64 or 4.9 percent to $56.50, also on the NYSE.
The study results, which will be used to seek U.S. approval for the device, were presented at a meeting of cardiologists in New Orleans.
Johnson & Johnson (JNJ.N: Quote, Profile , Research) also sells drug-coated stents in the United States, while Abbott and Medtronic Inc. (MDT.N: Quote, Profile , Research) sell them in overseas markets and are preparing to sell them here.
"Results from Abbott's U.S. and European DES trials should catapult the company's Xience product into a leadership position in both markets come 2008," Weinstein said.
Weinstein and other analysts raised their earnings estimates for Abbott Laboratories following the results.
Morgan Stanley analyst Glenn Reicin said Xience will likely gain market share at the expense of Taxus.
"The Spirit III results reinforce the view that Xience will likely be viewed as the 'best in class' DES for the remainder of the decade," Reicin said.
BMO Capital Markets analyst Joanne Wuensch cut her investment rating on Boston Scientific to "market perform" from "outperform" on Monday, citing the study and renewed worries about the overall health of the market for the wire-mesh devices that emit drugs to prevent vessels from narrowing again.
Pricier stents coated with drugs virtually replaced bare-metal stents when introduced over three years ago, generating almost 90 percent of all stent sales by early 2006. Now, some physicians are switching back to bare metal amid evidence that the drug-eluting versions carry a small but serious risk of blood clots forming long after the stents are implanted.
The percentage of patients receiving drug-eluting models has fallen to just above 70 percent, according to Boston Scientific.
There is also concern that a large study of patients with coronary artery disease and chest pain, also due to be presented at the medical meeting, will suggest that stents are being overprescribed.
厚労省 「医療費推計56兆円は過大」に反論
日刊薬業2007/03/26
2025年度の国民医療費が56兆円になるとの厚生労働省の推計について、日本医師会などが「過大な推計だ」と批判している問題で、同省は22日、「医師や看護師の増加数の見通しと賃金上昇率を勘案した場合を見ても過大なものではない」とする見解をまとめ、同日の「医療費の将来見通しに関する検討会」（座長＝飯野靖四・慶応大経済学部教授）に提示した。ただ、委員からは「医師の給与と診療報酬は関係ない」「医師の増加数は重要ではない」などの意見が上がった。
厚労省保険局調査課によると、06年５月に厚労省がまとめた「社会保障の給付と負担の見通し」で用いた賃金上昇率（年率2.4％程度）を前提とすると、25年度の賃金は現在の1.6倍になる。さらに、06年７月に公表した「医師の需給に関する検討会報告書」によると、25年度の医療施設に従事する医師の数は31.1万人で、06年度の25.9万人と比べて1.2倍となり、賃金の総額は1.6倍以上となることが見込まれる。
一方、厚労省の最新の推計では、改革実施後の国民医療費は25年度に56兆円になり、06年度の33.0兆円と比べて1.7倍となる。このため調査課は、「医療費の将来見通しは、供給体制からみて、必ずしも過大なものではないことが分かる」と結論付けた。
厚労省の見解に対し、井原裕宣委員（東京都社会保険診療報酬支払基金副審査委員長）は、「医師の給与は初診料や再診料、入院基本料、手術料の中に入っているとみることもできるが、ほとんど診療報酬とは関係がない。医療費とは別のところから医師の給与が出ている」と指摘。飯野座長も「医師の増加はそれほど重要ではない」と述べた。
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厚生労働省のお役人は、医療費亡国論を相変わらず、医師数抑制のバックボーンにしているようです。現場の窮状を知っていながら、見殺しにする官吏どもは何を言うのだろう？財務省にお金がないのは、土建屋のための政治を繰り広げた結果であって、国民には責任はないと思うが、日本の官僚の反論はまた聞いてみたいものである。ぽち→
個人的に思うのは、国民の最大の関心事である「医療」の費用を削減することについては、「国民の理解が必要」である。
現在生じている、地域医療崩壊の原因を造っている厚生労働省の役人の立場からは「医療費増加＝諸悪の根元」という…。厚生労働省医政局の中島正治元医事課長はこんなスライドを使って、東京大学で講演しているようです。ご参考までに。
日 時：２００６年１２月９日午後４時～
（１時間程度の講演会とその後質疑）
13F第8セミナー室（第６回と同じ部屋）
講 師：厚生労働省 中島正治前健康局長('76年卒）
演 題：医療制度構造改革と生活習慣病対策
恐らくこのスライドと似た内容を厚生労働省大臣官房審議官として発表しているので、その内容をかいつまんででしたら、こちらをご参考に。
「医療・保険の制度改革について」
2004/01/28
信頼・安心の確保
をうたっていますが、そのための費用は言及せずに、医師研修制度のことしか述べていないあたりが、現場で問題になっている「中堅層の医師」が直面している、過労死寸前の労働状況や肉体的な負担を厚生労働省の上級管理職は全く理解できていない証左でもあります。 このまま彼らに任せていいのでしょうかね？＞日医を通して自民党翼賛政治大賛成の先生がた。
