Xtent Inc. announced their plans to IPO yesterday with their S-1 filing with the SEC. The company is seeking a $103m IPO to enter the $5b drug eluting stent (heart device) market. The filing noted that coronary artery disease, or CAD, is the most common form of cardiovascular disease and the number one cause of death in the United States and Europe. The disease kills over 650,000 people each year and afflicts over 13 million Americans, according to the American Heart Association. This makes the market for their product one of the largest in the medical devices world.

Xtent says that “current commercially available stent systems include stents with fixed-lengths of up to 33mm, and require a separate device for each stent used. Fixed-length stent systems require physicians to estimate the size and shape of the artery's lumen, and then use their judgment to select the proper length and diameter stent for the lesion.” The company aims to combat these shortcomings by creating customizable drug eluting stent systems that are “designed to enable the treatment of single lesions, long lesions and multiple lesions of varying lengths and diameters, in one or more arteries with a single device.” This, in turn, would simplify the process and enable physicians to act more quickly and accurately.

The company plans to have its products on the market in Europe in late 2007 and the United States at the end of 2009 (at the earliest). The company also faces approval requirements by the FDA, PMA, and European agencies before it can market any of its products to the public. Although risky, if the company’s technology is successful, it may become a cornerstone in the $5b (and growing) market for stent heart devices. Also, short-term traders might want to keep an eye on the IPO - sometimes it is a good impulse buy at open and then a fade in the afternoon.