Product: Innovative Stent for Coronary Arteries Company: Medinol Start of Development: 1992
A stent is a tiny metal device a few millimeters in diameter that is implanted in patients with atherosclerosis – one of the world’s most common diseases that causes the narrowing of the coronary arteries and the disruption of blood flow to the heart muscle. The stent is inserted in a minimally invasive procedure called coronary catheterization and is expanded within the artery, thereby improving the blood flow and enabling the patient to resume normal life.
The stents invented in the early 1990s were very limited and allowed the treatment of only a small number of patients. In 1992, Dr. Judith Richter and Dr. Koby Richter founded Medinol with the vision of introducing an advanced coronary stent that could be used in a large number of patients. Under Dr. Koby Richter’s leadership, Medinol developed the “NIR” – an innovative stent that was flexible enough to pass through tortuous arteries while at the same time had sufficient radial strength in order to maintain the artery open following the procedure.
NIR® was the first stent to provide a solution for patients who had been previously been unable to receive treatment because their lesions were too extensive or located in tortuous arteries. The new stent’s manufacturing process was also unique and enabled the laser cutting of dozens of stents in a single process with significantly enhanced levels of precision and quality. The NIR was named after Captain Nir Poraz, an I.D.F officer who was killed in 1994 during the attempt to rescue kidnapped soldier Nachshon Wachsman.
In 1996, after proving its efficacy in clinical trials, the NIR was approved for use in many countries and global marketing began. The unique attributes and good clinical results of the NIR stent quickly transformed it into a prominent brand in the world of cardiology. With more than 2 million patients treated with the NIR, it was considered the most widely used stent in the world at the time.
This success has enabled Medinol to continue developing more advanced generations of stents. The newest generation of the NIR family is a drug-eluting stent called EluNIR™ that has demonstrated exceptional efficacy and safety in two clinical trials. The EluNIR includes several innovations such as a novel metallic spring at the tip of the delivery system and an elastic coating of unique material, both examples of Medinol’s continued tradition of innovation.
