Journalism of Courage
For the first time an Indian drug eluting stent (DES) has been reported to be equally safe and efficacious by two acclaimed international journals – the American College of Cardiology (JACC) and the European Heart Journal . These publications authenticate the strength of quality and clinical data associated with the stent,which is also being manufactured in India apart from Germany.
In a trial called ‘ISAR TEST-4’ which involved more than 4,600 patients,done across various centres of Europe over a period of three years,YUKON PC was compared versus Xience and Cypher,the two leading brands of American drug eluting stents considered the gold standard. YUKON PC showed similarity in efficacy and safety.
Till date,Indian patients had a choice of only imported medicated stents from the USA,which are available at a price range of Rs 90,000 and Rs 1,00,000. Since most of the patients in India pay from their pocket,these high prices of stents prevented them to access the treatment of angioplasty, says Singh.
Drug-eluting stents are scaffolds placed in the peripheral or coronary arteries (which supply to the heart) that slowly release drug to prevent restenosis or re-occlusion of the artery. They are superior to bare-metal stents (BMS) in preventing recurrence of arterial stenosis. Experts believe that by 2015,India will have more than 6.15 crore people suffering from coronary heart disease,with a significant number of the patients being in the age group of 20 to 29 years.
Singh says,The YUKON PC has a microporus surface,which is just one-fourth of the polymeric load as compared to other DES required to attain optimum drug release. It then becomes a polymer-free stent as the polymer gets degraded as soon all the drug is released in 60 days and hence requires only limited anti-platelet therapy.
