St. Jude Medical slides on negative results from heart implant trial

St. Jude Medical shares are down 4% today after clinical trial results show no significant benefit from its Amplatzer heart implant.

St. Jude Medical [1] (NYSE:STJ [2]) shares lost 4% today after studies of its Amplatzer heart implant failed to significantly reduce cryptogenic stroke compared with standard treatment with drugs.

The device is designed to treat a condition called patent foramen ovale, in which a naturally-occurring hole in the heart fails to close after birth, potentially allowing blood clots to travel from 1 side of the hart to the other and then to the brain, causing a stroke.

The St. Paul-based medical device company sponsored the larger study, of 980 patients, which tracked them at intervals of 1 month, 6 months, 12 months, 18 months, 24 months and then annually until 25 strokes or deaths occurred. It showed that 9 patients in the Amplatzer arm suffered non-fatal strokes, compared with 16 for the drug treatment cohort. There were no deaths or fatal strokes in either arm.