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Conor Medsystems Completes Clinical Trial for Optimization of Paclitaxel Drug Delivery Stent

Menlo Park, California, March 25, 2004 - Conor Medsystems, Inc., a vascular drug delivery company developing stents for controlled delivery of therapeutic agents, today announced that it had completed enrollment for a clinical trial evaluating MEDSTENT™, the company's paclitaxel drug delivery coronary stent.

The clinical trial, known as PISCES (Paclitaxel In-Stent Controlled Elution Study), is a multi-center, comprehensive dose optimization study involving 190 patients in nine sites across seven countries. The PISCES trial compares the safety and performance of six different formulations of paclitaxel for reducing restenosis in the treatment of native coronary artery lesions. The goal of this study is to determine the optimal release characteristics for paclitaxel in order to minimize angiographic late loss without exhibiting long-term persistence or toxicity of the drug and polymer. Within the six different groups, variables include drug release rate, dose, and directionality.

Radically different from conventional drug eluting stents, the Conor stent is the first non-surface-coated stent with unique drug delivery capabilities. With the patented Conor stent, the proprietary bio-erodable polymer drug and formulations are loaded into hundreds of non-deforming holes within the stent struts, allowing the release profile to be tailored to the requirements of the drug.

Results from the PISCES clinical trial will be announced in May at the EuroPCR meeting in Paris, a leading international conference in interventional cardiology with more than 8,000 participants. "The completion of the PISCES clinical trial marks a significant milestone in the development of our company's stent and polymer technologies," said John F. Shanley, Chief Technology Officer at Conor. "The PISCES trial will demonstrate for the first time in human stent trials whether kinetic release patterns are important factors in safety and efficacy. This has important implications for future trends in vascular drug delivery."

Conor Medsystems, Inc.
Conor Medsystems, Inc., founded in 1999, is a pioneer in controlled vascular drug delivery. The company has developed novel stent and polymer technologies specifically designed for delivery of a broad spectrum of therapeutic agents. Conor's proprietary technologies allow release profiles to be tailored to the requirements of a drug and enable the delivery of multiple compounds to various sites in the body.

Conor Medsystems is positioned to become a technical, clinical, and market leader in the emerging field of vascular drug delivery with next generation drug delivery stents. The company's initial focus is on the treatment of restenosis and vascular disease, a market expected to exceed $4 billion by 2006. Conor is also exploring applications in peripheral vascular disease and additional indications where controlled drug release from a medical device is expected to provide therapeutic advantages.