Piper Jaffray Healthcare Conference In Brief

Boston Scientific strategic review: Firm expects to complete a strategic review of its business, including "redoing the pipeline," by year-end, CEO Ray Elliott said during a Dec. 1 presentation at the Piper Jaffray Healthcare Conference in New York. Elliott, who took over the chief executive role from Jim Tobin in July, has cited improving marketing operations as a main priority; however, he also has signaled an interest in product diversification to include more women's health and urology projects (1"The Gray Sheet" July 27, 2009). While the company aspires to grow sales in the mid-single digits, "that's going to require some product mix changes and some emphasis changes, because it's very tough to get mid or even higher single-digit numbers with two-thirds of the business obviously positioned" in drug-eluting stents and cardiac rhythm management markets, which have lately experienced slower growth, he said. Boston Scientific recently reported third quarter sales of $2.025 billion, up 2% (2"The Gray Sheet" Oct. 26, 2009)