Future Directions

At the request of the FDA, four major drug companies and four major device companies are jointly investigating the best strategy to avoid clot formation in patients that have received stents. The $100 million, four-year study of 20,000 patients will specifically examine whether patients should remain on blood-thinners for 1 or 2.5+ years after PCI. Companies involved include: Bristol-Myers Squibb, Sanofi-Aventis, Eli Lilly, Daiichi Sankyo, Abbott, Medtronic, Boston Scientific, and Johnson & Johnson. This study was presented at TCT 2008 by Dr. Laura Mauri, a co-principal investigator of the study.