Business Highlights We are at the forefront of drug-eluting stents, one of the most exciting developments in interventional cardiology

We believe we are well-positioned to emerge as a leader in drug-eluting stents:

• We offer vertical integration of key components of a drug-eluting stent system: stent, stent delivery catheter, polymer and proprietary drug.
  
  
• We have developed a bioresorbable polymer.
  
  
• We have developed a specially designed drug for drug-eluting stents.

Our market opportunity is growing

The drug-eluting stent market is expected to grow to US$6 billion in annual sales worldwide by 2006 due to expected market adoption and premium pricing at two to three times the price of bare metal stents.

Our proprietary drug-eluting stent technologies have clinical advantages over competing products including:

• Unique bioresorbable polymer
  Currently, our proprietary polymer is differentiated from competitive polymers because it is bioresorbable. Our proprietary bioresorbable polymer degrades to water and carbon dioxide as the drug is released, mitigating side effects such as inflammation or polymer flaking.
  
  
• High drug-to-polymer ratio
  Our high drug-to-polymer ratio allows our stents to use significantly less polymer to deliver an equivalent dose of drug, which we believe provides better tissue compatibility than competing drug-eluting stents.
  
  
• Unique stent design
  Our stents are designed to have wider, rectangular-shaped struts which provide a greater surface area for delivery of the drug to the vessel wall.
  
  
• Asymmetrical coating process
  

  		We believe our drug delivery efficiency is higher as our proprietary asymmetrical coating process (more drug coated on the outside surface contacting the tissue and less drug applied to the inside surface closest to the blood) allows for more drug to be delivered directly to the tissue to minimise loss of the drug into the bloodstream.

• Faster, optimally timed drug release
  

  		The timing of our drug delivery has been designed to coincide roughly with the duration of the initial cellular response during stent placement. We believe this release profile effectively suppresses inflammatory response and smooth muscle cell growth which can lead to restenosis.

• Novel proprietary drug
  Our proprietary anti-restenosis drug, Biolimus A9, was designed specifically for use with stents. The drug has properties which are less attracted to blood and more attracted to specific binding sites in tissue characteristic of diseased coronary arteries, which we believe may yield better results in treating higher-risk patients such as those with diabetes or with more complex lesions.