Endologix's Ovation Alto System Treats First Patients

Medical device manufacturer, Endologix, Inc. (NASDAQ:ELGX) recently announced the treatment of the first two abdominal aortic aneurysms (“AAA”) patients with its yet-to-be released Ovation Alto Abdominal Stent Graft System. Notably, the Ovation Alto Abdominal Stent Graft System is the latest addition to Endologix’s existing Ovation Abdominal Stent Graft platform.

AAA is one of the most serious cardiovascular diseases, where the part of the aorta passing through the abdomen swells because of weakening of the vessel wall. Notably, EVAR is a minimally invasive alternative to major open surgery for the treatment of AAA.

Endologix’s Ovation Abdominal Stent Graft Platform is the lowest profile, Endovascular Aortic Repair (EVAR) device approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (“FDA”) approved. So far it has successfully treated 10,000 patients globally, taking care of a large variety of anatomies with a novel, less invasive and clinically proven solution for EVAR.

The new system – Ovation Alto Abdominal Stent Graft System – has been designed with repositioned sealing ring to treat patients with short or challenging aortic necks while offering all the other existing advantages of the Ovation platform.

Additionally, this device demonstrated outstanding clinical results from Ovation global pivotal trial and a 501-patient European Post-Market Registry. Meanwhile, management believes that the treatment of the first patients with the Ovation Alto system is a significant milestone in the company’s new product strategy.

Currently, the Ovation Alto Abdominal Stent Graft System is under examination and is expected to be launched in Europe in 2017 and in the U.S. in 2018. We expect the successful implementation of this device to pave the way for its timely launch, apart from boosting the company’s product portfolio and fortifying its position in the global endovascular AAA repair device market.

Further, this new tool has raised expectations among physicians who were encouraged with the Ovarian Alto System implementation in the underserved AAA community. They believe that the platform will attract more number of complex AAA patients going ahead.

Currently, more than 60% of AAA repairs are executed using EVAR than open surgery, which reflects a rapid rise in the adoption of endovascular stent grafts systems. This in turn should drive demand for Endologix’s EVAR product portfolio.

With the global endovascular AAA repair devices market expected to multiply at a CAGR of over 6% by 2019, we expect Endologix to gain more traction in this growing space on the back of the aforementioned developments.

Zacks Rank and Key Picks

Endologix carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).

Better-ranked stocks in the same space include Halyard Health, (NYSE:HYH) , Merit Medical Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:MMSI) and Align Technology Inc. (NASDAQ:ALGN) . While Halyard Health carries a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), while both Align Technology and Merit Medical Systems sport a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).