St. Jude Medical (STJ), a top-tier medical devices company, has received the European CE mark for its new Athena programmer, a deep brain stimulation (DBS) therapy management system. This next-generation DBS programmer, a notebook-based PC, represents the latest addition to the company’s DBS product portfolio.
DBS therapy is used to treat the symptoms of Parkinson’s disease, a neurological disorder that gradually reduces a person’s control over movements and speech. According to the European Parkinson’s Disease Association, roughly 6.3 million people globally are afflicted by this debilitating disease. DBS uses mild electrical pulses from a neurostimulator (an implanted device) to stimulate specific targets in the brain. The U.S. market for DBS systems is estimated to reach $1.4 billion by 2012.
The Athena programmer, which can be operated through an interactive touch screen or keyboard, has been designed to help clinicians control the amount of electrical pulses delivered to patients’ brains to treat Parkinson’s disease. It offers physicians a comprehensive and user-friendly interface, enabling them to set or adjust therapeutic parameters to optimize patient results.
Moreover, the Athena platform offers a comprehensive data management capacity, which will allow physicians to store up to 200,000 patient records. It can be used to program St. Jude’s Libra, LibraXP and Brio DBS systems for Parkinson’s disease that are currently approved in the European Union and Australia.
St. Jude’s Neuromodulation division, which was formed through its acquisition of Advanced Neuromodulation Systems in November 2005, offers various neurostimulation devices. St. Jude is one of the three major manufacturers of neurostimulation devices, along with Medtronic (MDT) and Boston Scientific (BSX). Medtronic, the market leader, recently received CE mark for its DBS therapy for epilepsy.
Neuromodulation represents a lucrative platform for St. Jude, which offers its spinal cord stimulators and DBS systems in this nascent but fast-growing market. The company’s Neuromodulation revenues are growing at a double-digit rate, benefiting from new spinal cord and Parkinson’s disease devices as well as sustained adoption of the Eon Mini implantable neurostimulator.
Moving forward, growth in Neuromodulation will be fostered by the adoption of the company’s DBS systems in Europe. The earliest opportunity in the U.S. for the DBS franchise is for Parkinson’s disease. St. Jude plans to file for pre-market approval (PMA) with the FDA in first-half 2011. Currently, we have a Neutral recommendation on St. Jude, which is supported by a short-term Zacks #3 Rank (Hold).
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