St. Jude gets approval to sell Victory pacemakers in Europe

By E. Janene Geiss

Philadelphia, Oct. 27 - St. Jude Medical, Inc. announced Thursday that it has received European CE Mark approval for the Victory pacemaker family, which allows for the sale of St. Jude Medical's newest pacemaker family in European Union countries.

The products are expected to be released broadly in Europe in the first quarter of 2006, according to a company news release.

The pacemakers offer optimized settings to save time at implant, VIP (Ventricular Intrinsic Preference) technology to minimize ventricular pacing, a FastPath summary screen to speed follow-up exams and advanced technologies to extend the life of the device in patients, officials said.

"The Victory pacemaker comes with optimized settings right out of the box, which greatly reduces device set-up time at implant," Wolfgang Ehrlich, who performed the first implant at the Kerckhoff Klinik in Bad Nauheim, Germany said in the release.

The VIP technology in Victory pacemakers is an enhancement developed from years of clinical experience with the AutoIntrinsic Conduction Search feature, officials said.

VIP technology is designed to promote more natural heart function and minimizes ventricular pacing. This is an important clinical consideration, since studies such as St. Jude Medical's DAVID (Dual-Chamber And VVI Implantable Defibrillator) trial have shown that excessive ventricular pacing may contribute to heart failure in some patients. VIP technology is designed to allow the patient's own heartbeat to be "in control" the majority of the time, officials said.

St. Paul, Minn.-based St. Jude Medical, Inc. designs, manufactures and distributes medical devices.

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