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Boston Scientific reported its 3rd quarter earnings late Monday, netting $200 million in profit as its sales increased 3 percent to $2.03 billion globally. This is up from last year at this time, when the Natick, Mass.-based device behemoth reported $62 million in losses, and earned just 4 cents a share, versus this quarter's 13 cents.

Nonetheless, this is a penny behind Wall Street's predictions of 14 cents a share, and Boston admits its heart-rhythm device market isn't growing like it used to, although implantable cardiac defibrillator sales are up around 5 percent since last year for a total world net of $445 million in sales.



Boston's drug-eluting stent sales are also up 5 percent, at $411 million, and Ray Elliott, President and CEO of Boston, in a conference call, said his company still holds the "worldwide leadership position" by commanding 41 percent of the global DES share. However, their grip is expected to loosen, as at the TCT conference this fall Abbott and Medtronic presented evidence from long-term studies of their second-generation stents showing they reduced major cardiac events by as much 40 percent compared with the current model of Boston's flagship Taxus stent. In his talk, Elliott even made a dig at one of these trials, saying it was "inconsistent with the overall body of Taxus evidence, and we expect that the results of future studies will be more in line with those of other Taxus trials."

Neuromodulation devices saw the biggest growth, picking up 21 percent since last year to see $72 million in sales. These devices deliver mild electric jolts to the brain, and are primarily used in the treatment of chronic pain, but also have implications in Alzheimer's, depression and other disorders.

Because of weaker than expected earnings, Boston is slashing its yearly earnings per share forecast to between 75 and 79 cents, less than the 82 to 86 cents originally foretold by the company.