A new drug-coated stent made by Singapore-based Biosensors International Group Ltd. is as safe and effective as its older counterpart made by healthcare giant Johnson & Johnson (JNJ), according to a study presented Monday at the European Society of Cardiology meeting in Munich, Germany.

A stent is a tiny tube placed into an artery or blood vessel to keep it open. They release drugs that help prevent blood vessels from reclogging after surgery to open them up.

The Biosensors’ product comes with a promising new approach because it is made with a bioabsorbable polymer which dissolves completely after nine months. This could help patients overcome problems associated with older drug-coated stents such as the formation of blood clots more than a year after the surgery.

Recent studies also showed that patients given drug-coated stents to prop open clogged heart arteries were unlikely to die or need ulterior procedure in case of complications compared to patients that have older, bare-metal devices.

Swiss researchers compared the results of the next generation drug-coated stents with conventional drug-coated stents in a study involving 1,700 patients. They found no significant difference in the performance of BioMatrix compared to a standard drug-eluting stent releasing sirolimus. Patients with chronic stable coronary artery disease or acute coronary syndromes received either of the two stents.

At the end of a nine months study, researchers led by Professor Stephan Windecker of Bern University Hospital found the number of deaths, heart attacks and repeat interventions were equivalent in both groups of patients.

Researchers said the study “establishes the non-inferiority” of the newer drug-coated stent.