Global pharmaceutical company Abbott and St Jude Medical of St. Paul, Minn., have collaborated on the Choice Alliance, a multi-year joint initiative that provides mutual U.S. customers access to a robust portfolio of interventional cardiology, electrophysiology and intravascular imaging, cardiac rhythm management and diagnostic technologies.

This enhanced alliance, which builds upon an existing agreement between the two companies that began in 2008, consists of Abbott's leading coronary and endovascular product portfolios—including the XIENCE family of everolimus eluting coronary stents—and St. Jude's portfolio of electrophysiology, cardiac rhythm management and cardiology technologies—including ablation catheters, pacemakers, implantable cardioverter defibrillators (ICDs), leads, fractional flow reserve (FFR) lesion assessment technology and optical coherence tomography (OCT) imaging products.

Abbott and St. Jude will jointly promote each other's product offerings when developing contract solutions with hospital customers in the U.S., enabling both companies to present a combined comprehensive cardiovascular product portfolio. In addition, a separate distribution agreement between the two companies grants Abbott the rights to distribute St. Jude’s RadiAnalyzer Xpress Measurement and ILUMIEN PCI Optimization System, the only integrated FFR and OCT platform. Combined, FFR and OCT technologies are designed to enable the optimization of percutaneous coronary intervention by assisting physicians in identifying and treating culprit lesions responsible for ischemia.

"Through this arrangement, Abbott becomes the only stent manufacturer to offer physician customers both an advanced imaging technology with FFR to identify vessels for treatment, as well as the stent therapy,” said Lance C. Scott, divisional vice president and general manager, coronary, Abbott.