Boston Scientific yesterday agreed a £15 billion deal for the medical firm Guidant, which could prove a major step forward in the development of brain aneurysms.

Guidant is the world's second-largest maker of implantable heart defibrillators and a major producer of medical stents which underpin a variety of procedures, including the development of non-invasive aneurysm.

Two years earlier Boston Scientific won clearance from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to market its Guglielmi Detachable Coils (GDC) to treat all brain aneurysms – with tiny mesh stents an additional part of the apparatus needed to successfully perform the operation.

Boston's platinum GDC Coils were legitimised as part of the less-invasive alternative to surgery provided for the estimated 17 million people who have a brain aneurysm.

Typically, most brain aneurysm patients in the United States were previously treated by neurosurgical clipping, which involves performing a craniotomy (temporarily removing a section of the skull during surgery) and placing a surgical clip at the neck of the aneurysm.

However, following well-documented breakthroughs across the world, surgeons are increasingly performing less-invasive endovascular coil treatment. Endovascular coil treatment involves insertion of a catheter into the femoral artery in the patient's leg, through which tiny platinum coils are then threaded and deployed into the aneurysm, obstructing blood flow and preventing further damage.

Boston Scientific's buy-out of stent maker Guidant saw it beat Johnson & Johnson, its far larger rival, to the company's signature that will herald Boston Scientific's first entry into the medical device sector.

Boston Scientific's chief executive James Tobin delayed his retirement to oversee the deal.

Mr Tobin joined the company in March 1999, when the company was in bad shape, with product recalls, accounting problems in Japan, and a US Justice Department enquiry looming over it.

The combined company will have a market value of over £20 million.


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