St. Jude touts pacemaker's longevity

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• 2007-05-06 10:05:33
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Company says just-approved Zephyr can last up to 14 years
BY CHRISTOPHER SNOWBECK
Pioneer Press

Which company's pacemaker is the one that keeps going and going and going for the longest period of time?

Little Canada-based St. Jude Medical announced regulatory approval Thursday in the U.S. and Europe for its new Zephyr line of pacemakers. Among other innovations, the Zephyr has an expected 14-year lifespan thanks to a new feature that conserves the amount of energy used in pacing the upper chambers of the heart, the company said.

Other pacemakers from the company last from five to 10 years, depending on the intensity of pacing required for a given patient's heart, said spokeswoman Kathleen Janasz.

Pacemakers work by stimulating the heart muscle with electric charges so that a heart beats more normally.

"The extended longevity (of Zephyr) assures my patients of a longer-lasting device with very advanced features and, in turn, fewer replacement surgeries, which combats their main concern upon receiving a pacemaker," Dr. Raymond Schaerf, a cardiothoracic surgeon in California, said in a news release issued by St. Jude Medical.

While one stock analyst Thursday told Bloomberg News that neither of the other two big pacemaker manufacturers in the U.S. - Fridley-based Medtronic and Boston Scientific, which makes the devices in Arden Hills - markets a product with a 14-year battery, a Medtronic spokeswoman said that company does, in fact, have pacemakers that last that long.

Kyra Schmitt, the Medtronic spokeswoman, noted that a company's projection for a product's lifespan can differ from actual results. An October 2006 article from the medical journal PACE, for example, asserted that manufacturer projections on longevity "cannot be relied upon."

Annette Ruzicka, spokeswoman for Natick, Mass.-based Boston Scientific's pacemaker division, said her company usually talks about devices lasting for seven to eight years, on average, although individual results vary. Longevity is important, she said, but it isn't everything.

"I think most of the advances in the technology have been more around the diagnostic capability of the device, and the features of the device that add more flexibility for patients," Ruzicka said.

In trading Thursday, St. Jude Medical shares were down 28 cents to $44.10.

Christopher Snowbeck can be reached at 651-228-5479 or csnowbeck@pioneerpress.com.