Abbott wins U.S. approval for stent that absorbs into body

U.S. health regulators said on Tuesday they approved a stent by Abbott Laboratories that is the first designed to be absorbed into the bloodstream after it is implanted.

The stent, called Absorb, is made of a plastic similar to dissolving sutures and offers patients an alternative to metal stents currently used to prop open arteries cleared of blockages.

Unlike traditional stents that remain in place after implantation, Absorb is designed to disappear fully within three years of the procedure.

Absorb’s appeal is that it allows the blood vessel to return to a natural state, free from a permanent metal implant. The approach holds particular promise for patients whose coronary artery disease could require multiple implants over the course of several decades, said Mitchell Krucoff, a professor at Duke University Medical Center who has advised Abbott on Absorb.

“This is a game changer,” Krucoff said in an interview. “There are no longer going to be permanent metal implants in the artery.”

The Absorb stent releases the drug everolimus to combat the growth of scar tissue, which can form within a stent and cause the artery to narrow again.

(Reporting by Susan Kelly in Chicago; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Bill Trott)