Meril, a large Indian medical device firm, has developed a drug-eluting bioresorbable vascular scaffold, which looks like a stent but that eventually and slowly degrades is washed away by the body. The MeRes100 is made of PLLA coated with PDLLA, both biodegradable polymers, while Sirolimus (rapamycin), the immunosuppressant common in drug eluting stents, is embedded within the coating. The struts of the device are only 100 μm thick while providing the strength needed to maintain an open lumen.
It comes with its own delivery mechanism based on a balloon catheter and the implant has three radiopaque markers on its tips to make placement easier under fluoroscopy and large size matrix.
Here’s a summary from an ongoing trial in India involving 108 patients at 16 different hospitals, according to Meril:
MeRes-1 study was recently presented by Dr. Ashok Seth (New Delhi, India) during TCT 2016 involving 108 subjects treated across 16 prominent clinical sites in India. There were no instances of MACE or scaffold thrombosis within 6 months. On QCA analysis, in-scaffold late lumen loss was 0.15±0.23 mm & OCT analysis showed 99.3% of struts covered at 6 months. The 6-months clinical and angiographic/OCT/IVUS results demonstrated excellent safety & efficacy of this promising next generation BRS.
Technology info page: MeRes100…