Boston Scientific's Positive SCS Trial Aids Neuromodulation

Boston Scientific Corporation’s (NYSE:BSX) successful result from its WHISPER randomized controlled trial (RCT) further boosts its neuromodulation business. This announcement follows the recent FDA approval of Spectra WaveWriter Spinal Cord Stimulator System (SCS) within the neuromodulation arm.

Presented at the North American Neuromodulation Society in Las Vegas, The WHISPER RCT is a multi-center, prospective, cross-over, randomized and controlled study, evaluating the long-term safety and effectiveness of SCS therapy. The data demonstrated that when both sub-perception and paresthesia-based SCS therapies are utilized as a combined therapy regimen for chronic pain relief, it delivers superior outcomes in comparison to patients with a single SCS therapeutic option.

Notably, SCS technology sends low electrical pulses in varied frequency, pulse width and amplitude to the spinal cord to interrupt pain signals. While paresthesia-based therapy provides pain relief with a light tingling sensation, sub-perception therapy works without it.

Per Boston Scientific, this study provides favorable data on people, suffering from chronic pain for years and also exposed to the challenges of long-term usage of SCS. Management stated, “if patients are able to choose between the SCS therapy that provides the most effective pain relief, the number of subjects whose pain was effectively controlled by SCS increased by 62%”.

The results also demonstrated that lending patients with the choice to use sub-perception or paresthesia-based therapy, provides superior patient outcomes and affirms that SCS is a clinically valuable treatment option.

In this regard, it is encouraging to note that this study result remains well-aligned with the company’s latest FDA approved SCS system — Spectra WaveWriter. The company claims that this latest technology effectively enables physicians and patients to combine therapeutic options, customize therapies and capture the real-time feedback to treat chronic and debilitating pain besides addressing individual distinctive pain-relief needs.

With Spectra WaveWriter System at its disposal, Boston Scientific can certainly vouch for the fact that patients may easily combine both paresthesia-based and sub-perception therapies to target one specific area of pain. Also, they can provide a real-time feedback using the system's remote control.

Per data provided by Markets and Markets, the global neuromodulation market is projected to reach $6.20 billion by 2020 from $3.65 billion in 2015 at a CAGR of 11.2%. Boston Sciebntfic earlier noted that more than 100 million Americans suffer from chronic pain, thereby making it the prime cause of disability in adults in the United States. The company’s commitment to invest in research and expansion of treatment options for chronic pain by identifying new, non-opioid solutions like the SCS appears to be perfectly strategic.

Share Price Movement

Boston Scientific has been outperforming the broader industry over the past 30 days. The stock has gained 6.6% compared with the broader industry's 3.4% growth.

Stocks to Consider

Boston Scientific carries a Zacks Rank #4 (Sell).

Some better-ranked stocks in the broader medical space are Bio-Rad Laboratories (NYSE:BIO) , Centene Corporation (NYSE:CNC) and Molina Healthcare Inc. (NYSE:MOH) , each sporting a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

Bio-Rad has a whopping expected growth rate of 141.5% for the first quarter of 2018. The stock has jumped 35%, surpassing the broader industry over a year.

Centene has an expected long-term growth rate of 14%. The stock’s performance on the bourses has been solid in a year’s time with a high return of 70.4%.

For 2018, Molina Healthcare has a sturdy projected growth rate of 178.6%. In the last three months, the stock has surged 37.8%, higher than the broader industry’s rally of 17.9%.

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