ICD MARKET ON THE ROAD TO RECOVERY, ANALYSTS SAY

The awaited implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (ICD) market recovery "is now afoot," Lazard Capital Markets analyst Alexander Arrow said in a Jan. 8 research note.

"We believe an easing of ICD safety concerns, along with hospital progress toward diversifying ICD purchasing, is driving the recovery," Arrow said.

But U.S. firms could see an ICD market depression if public perception of the devices cannot be restored in six months or "if one of the developmental disruptive ICD technologies changes the market," he added.

"We suspect St. Jude [Medical] continues to gain share in this market at the expense of Boston Scientific, which has a relatively stale product set," RBC's Phil Nalbone said in a Jan. 8 research note.

St. Jude will report final fourth-quarter 2006 results Jan. 25. The firm pre-announced better-than-expected results, "topping both our estimates and consensus," Merrill Lynch Research analyst Katherine Owen said Jan. 8.