Sales surge for Medtronic's Santa Rosa unit

<p>Medtronic's Santa Rosa vascular unit was the device maker's fastest-growing business in the third quarter, boosting sales 28 percent from the same period a year ago, the company reported Tuesday. </p><p>The division's coronary, peripheral and endovascular products generated a record $506 million in revenue for the quarter ended Jan. 29, up from $395 million last year. </p><p>Much of that growth came from sales outside the United States, where Medtronic has gained a larger share of the market for stents and stent grafts for treating artery disease. </p><p>Coronary stents — tiny wire mesh tubes used to prop open clogged arteries — made the news earlier this month when former President Bill Clinton had two of them implanted during a heart procedure at a New York hospital. Hospital officials wouldn't identify the stents' maker.</p><p>Medtronic now accounts for about 20 percent of coronary stent sales worldwide, it said Tuesday. Other stent makers include Johnson & Johnson, Boston Scientific and Abbott Laboratories. </p><p>Medtronic's new Endeavor drug-coated coronary stent, designed to keep arteries from re-clogging, is one of the division's top sellers, generating $40 million last quarter in Japan alone. Endeavor was approved for sale in the U.S. in 2008. </p><p>“Endeavor continues to perform well in markets around the world,” Medtronic CEO Bill Hawkins said Tuesday.</p><p>Several of Medtronic's stent graft products, which treat life-threatening aortic aneurysms, also are market leaders in the U.S. and Western Europe, he said.</p><p>Minneapolis-based Medtronic, the world's largest medical device maker, posted more than $14 billion in sales last year. It has about 840 employees in Santa Rosa, the headquarters for its global vascular business, which generates about 12 percent of the company's revenues. </p><p>Companywide, Medtronic reported $3.9 billion in revenue in the third quarter, 10 percent above the same period a year ago. Profit rose 19 percent to $831 million. </p><p>Medtronic's largest business, including implantable heart pacemakers and defibrillators, posted $1.2 billion in quarterly sales, up 6 percent from the year-ago period. </p><p>The company also makes spinal, neuromodulation, diabetes, surgical and physio-control products. </p><p>Medtronic acquired the vascular business from Santa Rosa's Arterial Vascular Engineering in 1999 for $3.7 billion. It's now part of the company's CardioVascular segment, which includes medical devices for treating structural heart disease. </p><p>Medtronic shares closed at $42.87 Tuesday on the New York Stock Exchange, down nearly 2 percent from Monday's close, as revenue fell slightly below Wall Street forecasts.</p>