Having built up a $500 million business with the only approved coronary stent on the US market, Johnson & Johnson's Cordis watched virtually all of it slip away to competitors who came to market with superior products. But now the company is back, with the introduction of a new line of stents, expansion into a broad line of cardio- and vascular products, and a head start in one of the most promising device areas: drug-coated stents. Cordis' goal: to be number one again.

Novoste is out to show that the changing device world still has room, in the right market, for a small single-product company to succeed against larger competitors.

A variety of approaches are being used to combat the problem of restenosis following angioplasty. In addition to separate drug and device efforts, several companies are working on drug-device collaborations to prevent restenosis.