Gore

A recently announced product development and distribution alliance between two leading medical device manufacturers, W. L. Gore & Associates, Inc. (Gore) and Medinol Ltd., holds great promise for advancing the science of stenting. In September, 2002, the two companies entered into a broad collaborative agreement that will bring advanced stent solutions to the interventional cardiology community.

Stent technology: strength, support and flexibility
Medinol was the first developer to combine the characteristics of both rigid and flexible stents in a single device offering improved handling and performance. The company's minimally invasive stent technology utilizes a patented flexible, closed cell design providing exceptional flexibility without sacrificing scaffolding. Designed to be MRI-safe, these stents are built from flat, stainless steel alloy sheets welded into a structure of five, seven and nine cells that create a tubular configuration.

Medinol introduced the latest enhancement to its stent technology – the NIRflex™ Coronary Stent – in 2002. Based on a revolutionary geometry that simultaneously provides flexibility and real-time conformability, the NIRflex™ Stents are able to move with the blood vessel while maintaining optimal scaffolding.

The adaptive cell design of the NIRflex™ Stent allows differential lengthening of the stent body, providing the flexibility required for insertion of the device in narrow or convoluted arteries, while maintaining the uniform cell area needed to sustain vessel support and minimize prolapse in curved sections. The stent’s ability to prevent prolapse is directly proportional to the size of the gaps between its struts; the stent’s small, sub-cell compartments retain support while remaining flexible.

---

---

NIRflex™ Stents
The NIRflex™ Stent, the newest interventional product offering from Gore, redefines stent performance. It is the original stent based on a continuous, flexible closed cell design with adaptive cells capable of differential lengthening. This enables the stent to be flexible without sacrificing scaffolding, thus supporting the vessel while conforming to its dynamic curvature. Not only does the NIRflex™ Coronary Stent maintain the uniform cell area needed to sustain vessel support and minimize prolapse in curved sections, but its expanded side branch access provides easy reach for future procedures.

The NIRflex™ Coronary Stent is now available in Europe. Clinical studies of the NIRflex™ Stents are currently underway in the United States, with U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) approval expected in 2003.

Expanded product line meets a range of interventional needs
The NIRflex™ Coronary Stents are the first of a series of advanced products to be developed and marketed under the Gore-Medinol alliance. Gore and Medinol are currently working on stents covering a wide range of applications, both coronary and peripheral. Long-range plans include technologies designed to address and combat restenosis.

Gore's addition of Medinol stents to its current product line, coupled with an expanded sales force dedicated to the combined offering, will enable the company to meet a wide range of medical device requirements. Gore can now provide clinical cardiologists and radiologists with one of the industry's most complete portfolios of implantable medical products.

MEDINOL and NIRflex™ are trademarks of Medinol Ltd., Israel.
Gore is a trademark of W. L. Gore & Associates.