Weinstein says he has doubts about Cypher's ability to make up for sagging drug sales over the long term.
But until recently, doctors have had no way of comparing Cypher to Taxus.
In the trial, patients who received Taxus instead of Cypher were 80% more likely have a serious cardiovascular event or surgery.
But, only a few hours later, Swiss researchers presented their own independent study, called Sirtax, which showed a clear benefit for Cypher.
Investors are still waiting for news on Cypher, a drug-coated stent that many are hoping will make up for slowing drug sales.
The researchers found that patients receiving Cypher were at much lower risk of having their arteries reclose than those who received Taxus.
The worst-case scenario is that Amgen continues to erase any growth Procrit can manage, and the Cypher stent can't make up the difference.
The Cypher patients also saw restenosis rates around the edges of their stents of 8.9%, a 75% reduction versus the group receiving uncoated stents.
Bare metal stents cut that rate at least in half, and both Cypher and Taxus lower it again to a mere 5% or so.
In a related study, German and Swiss researchers used statistical methods to analyze the six largest trials comparing Cypher to Taxus, involving 3, 669 patients.
Bletchley Park was the wartime home of the Government Code and Cypher School which broke the codes generated by the German Enigma machine, using the Bombe.
He notes that with the exception of one small study published two weeks ago, the evidence is consistent that Cypher is better at preventing arteries from reclogging.
Taxus patients' arteries re-narrowed more often than those on Cypher.
Weldon launched the first drug-coated stent, Cypher, for angina, a kind of heart pain, and then had so much trouble competing with Abbott and other rivals that it eventually closed the division.
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Samin Sharma, a cardiologist at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine, say she thinks most doctors would opt to use Cypher if it weren't for persistent manufacturing problems that can make the device harder for doctors to get.
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