ABBOTT PARK, Ill. and ST. PAUL, Minn., April 23, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Abbott (NYSE: ABT) and St. Jude Medical (NYSE: STJ) today announced Choice Alliance, a multi-year joint initiative that provides mutual U.S. customers access to a robust portfolio of interventional cardiology, cardiac rhythm management, electrophysiology and intravascular imaging and diagnostic technologies.

This enhanced alliance, which builds upon an existing agreement between the two companies that began in 2008, includes Abbott's leading coronary and endovascular product portfolios, including the XIENCE family of everolimus eluting coronary stents, and St. Jude Medical's portfolio of electrophysiology, cardiac rhythm management and cardiology technologies, including ablation catheters, pacemakers, implantable cardioverter defibrillators (ICDs), leads, fractional flow reserve (FFR) lesion assessment technology and optical coherence tomography (OCT) imaging products. Under the terms of the new alliance, both Abbott and St. Jude Medical will jointly promote each other's product offerings when developing contract solutions with hospital customers in the United States, enabling both companies to present a combined comprehensive cardiovascular product portfolio. In addition, a separate distribution agreement between the two companies grants Abbott the rights to distribute the St. Jude Medical ILUMIEN™ PCI Optimization System, the only integrated FFR and OCT platform, as well as the RadiAnalyzer™ Xpress Measurement System, in the United States. 

"Like St. Jude Medical, our goal is to bring the world's best technologies to physicians for the treatment of patients with heart disease," said Lance C. Scott, divisional vice president and general manager, Coronary, Abbott Vascular. "As the worldwide leader in drug eluting stent technology, Abbott is committed to optimizing outcomes for patients, and we are excited about the potential of novel technologies like FFR and OCT for improving patient care. Through this arrangement, Abbott becomes the only stent manufacturer to offer physician customers both an advanced imaging technology with FFR to identify vessels for treatment, as well as the stent therapy physicians turn to most – our market-leading XIENCE family of everolimus eluting coronary stents."

"We are pleased to build upon our relationship with Abbott and further expand the breadth of clinical and economic solutions St. Jude Medical provides to our customers," said Joel Becker, president of the United States Division of St. Jude Medical. "This Alliance provides St. Jude Medical the opportunity to combine Abbott's leading drug eluting stent offering with our leading cardiac rhythm management, electrophysiology and cardiovascular product portfolios. Our companies share a commitment to optimizing results for patients through state-of-the-art treatments for cardiovascular disease with the support of clinical evidence. This agreement allows both companies to provide customers with clinically significant and cost-effective cardiovascular disease therapies."

FFR is a physiological index that determines the severity of blood flow blockages in the coronary arteries. An FFR measurement helps physicians to better identify which specific lesion or lesions are responsible for a patient's ischemia, a deficiency of blood supply to the heart caused by a coronary narrowing or blockage. When integrated into routine lab procedures, as shown by the FAME (Fractional Flow Reserve versus Angiography for Multivessel Evaluation) study, sponsored by St. Jude Medical, measuring FFR reduces the risk of death or heart attack by 34 percent.

OCT is a leading imaging technology platform providing physicians with valuable information both pre- and post-stent deployment to aid in the diagnosis and treatment of cardiovascular disease. OCT is especially important in guiding accurate stent deployment. OCT also allows for the assessment of the adequacy of stent deployment after a procedure, through high-resolution images that show precisely how the stent is holding the artery open and whether it is positioned correctly against the artery wall. Combined, FFR and OCT technologies are designed to enable the optimization of percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) by assisting physicians in identifying and treating culprit lesions responsible for ischemia.

About St. Jude Medical
St. Jude Medical develops medical technology and services that focus on putting more control into the hands of those who treat cardiac, neurological and chronic pain patients worldwide. The company is dedicated to advancing the practice of medicine by reducing risk wherever possible and contributing to successful outcomes for every patient. St. Jude Medical is headquartered in St. Paul, Minn. and has four major focus areas that include: cardiac rhythm management, atrial fibrillation, cardiovascular and neuromodulation. For more information, please visit sjm.com.

Forward-Looking Statements
This news release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 that involve risks and uncertainties. Such forward-looking statements include the expectations, plans and prospects for the Company, including potential clinical successes, anticipated regulatory approvals and future product launches, and projected revenues, margins, earnings and market shares. The statements made by the Company are based upon management's current expectations and are subject to certain risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those described in the forward-looking statements. These risks and uncertainties include market conditions and other factors beyond the Company's control and the risk factors and other cautionary statements described in the Company's filings with the SEC, including those described in the Risk Factors and Cautionary Statements sections of the Company's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended January 1, 2011 and Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the fiscal quarter ended October 1, 2011. The Company does not intend to update these statements and undertakes no duty to any person to provide any such update under any circumstance.

About Abbott Vascular
Abbott Vascular is the world's leader in drug eluting stents. Abbott Vascular has an industry-leading pipeline and a comprehensive portfolio of market-leading products for cardiac and vascular care, including products for coronary artery disease, vessel closure, endovascular disease and structural heart disease.

About Abbott
Abbott is a global, broad-based health care company devoted to the discovery, development, manufacture and marketing of pharmaceuticals and medical products, including nutritionals, devices and diagnostics. The company employs approximately 91,000 people and markets its products in more than 130 countries.

Abbott information is available on the company's Web site at www.abbott.com.

SOURCE Abbott