STJ ST. Jude Medical, Inc.

St. Jude Medical and Conor Medsystems Sign International Distribution Agreement for COSTAR(TM) Drug Eluting Stent MENLO PARK, Calif., Nov. 23 /PRNewswire/ -- Conor Medsystems, Inc. today announced that is has entered into an international distribution agreement with St. Jude Medical, Inc. (NYSE:STJ) for Conor Medsystems' COSTAR(TM) cobalt chromium paclitaxel drug eluting stent for the treatment of restenosis. Under the agreement, St. Jude Medical agreed to be the exclusive distributor of Conor Medsystems' COSTAR stent in Japan, Korea, Australia and New Zealand, and will be responsible for sales and marketing in these territories. Conor Medsystems will retain manufacturing rights and sell the product to St. Jude Medical. Specific terms of the agreement were not disclosed. In connection with the distribution agreement, St. Jude Medical has provided a $5 million loan to Conor which will convert into shares of Conor Medsystems common stock in certain circumstances. St. Jude Medical, Inc. (http://www.sjm.com/) is dedicated to the design, manufacture and distribution of innovative medical devices of the highest quality, offering physicians, patients and payers unmatched clinical performance and demonstrated economic value. Conor Medsystems, Inc. develops innovative controlled vascular drug delivery technologies, and has initially focused on the development of drug eluting stents to treat coronary artery disease. In contrast to currently available drug eluting stents, Conor Medsystems' drug eluting stents have been specifically designed for vascular drug delivery. Conor's stents incorporate hundreds of small holes, each acting as a reservoir into which drug-polymer compositions can be loaded. This proprietary design allows better control of drug release kinetics, or the rate of drug release over time. DATASOURCE: Conor Medsystems, Inc. CONTACT: Michael Boennighausen, Chief Financial Officer, of Conor Medsystems, Inc., +1-650-614-4100 Web site: http://www.sjm.com/ Web site: http://www.conormed.com/

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