Drug-Eluting Balloons: Promise Versus Practicalities

Drug-eluting balloons might someday pick up where drug-eluting stents leave off, promising to solve problems not addressed - and even created - by DES. However, despite what interventional cardiology companies have learned about device and drug combinations, the drug-coated balloon markets aren't as simple as they might at first seem. Device companies will have to get conversant with issues that are more closely akin to the pharmaceutical industry than the device world, namely, how the products perform in terms of pharmacokinetics and drug distribution.