Boston Scientific Corporation announced that it has enrolled the first patient in its TAXUS Liberte post-approval study. The study is designed to evaluate real-world clinical outcomes data for the Taxus® Liberte® Paclitaxel-Eluting Coronary Stent System in combination with a dual antiplatelet therapy drug regimen that includes aspirin and Effient®, a new antiplatelet medication. Co-sponsors of the study include Eli Lilly and Company and Daiichi Sankyo, Inc., manufacturers of Effient, which was recently approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The first patient was enrolled by Joel Cohn, MD, FACC, at the Ingham Regional Medical Center in Lansing, Michigan.

TAXUS Liberte is a prospective surveillance study that will enroll approximately 4,200 consecutive patients at up to 65 U.S. sites. The study will evaluate clinical outcomes in a broad range of patients with coronary artery disease who receive a Taxus Liberte Stent followed by the use of aspirin and Effient(1). The primary endpoint of the study is the rate of cardiac death or myocardial infarction (MI) at 12 months. Secondary endpoints will be analyzed out to five years and include rates of stent thrombosis using the Academic Research Consortium (ARC) definition, target vessel failure (TVF), target vessel revascularization (TVR), MI, bleeding events and stroke.

“The Taxus Liberte Stent has been studied extensively in the ATLAS and OLYMPIA clinical programs with impressive results,” said Keith D. Dawkins, MD, Senior Vice President and Associate Chief Medical Officer at Boston Scientific. “The TAXUS Liberte post-approval study will allow us to further assess the second-generation Taxus Liberte Stent — along with the use of Effient and aspirin — in a variety of complex lesions.”

Boston Scientific plans to contribute data on the first 1,524 eligible patients from the TAXUS Liberte study to the DAPT Study, a landmark collaboration among the FDA, drug and device manufacturers, and the Harvard Clinical Research Institute (HCRI). This four-year public health study will investigate the appropriate duration of dual antiplatelet therapy following drug-eluting stent implantation. HCRI is responsible for the scientific management and independent analysis of the overall study.

Added Dawkins, “The value of antiplatelet drugs in reducing events such as myocardial infarction and stent thrombosis after stent implantation has been demonstrated but the optimal duration of this therapy is less clear. The results of the DAPT Study should provide new insights into the use of dual antiplatelet medication with drug-eluting stents and help establish more definitive guidelines for clinical practice.”