B. Braun's Bet on Balloons
Executive Summary
Until now, B. Braun, one of the oldest players in cardiovascular devices, has been comfortable in its niche. B. Braun's cardiovascular business is actually made up of two units, one that makes products for interventional radiologists and surgeons in the peripheral field, the other on a range of devices used in interventional cardiology. But the investment the company is making in a new technology, drug-eluting balloons, could be disruptive, if not to interventional cardiology, at least to the cardiovascular device companies and none more so than B. Braun itself.
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Drug-Eluting Balloons: Promise Versus Practicalities
Drug-eluting balloons might someday pick up where drug-eluting stents leave off, promising to solve problems not addressed - and even created - by DES. However, despite what interventional cardiology companies have learned about device and drug combinations, the drug-coated balloon markets aren't as simple as they might at first seem. Device companies will have to get conversant with issues that are more closely akin to the pharmaceutical industry than the device world, namely, how the products perform in terms of pharmacokinetics and drug distribution.