In its earnings report late yesterday, Boston Scientific said it’s on track to have its first profitable year since 2005. Here’s the company’s statement and the WSJ story . One detail that caught our eye: The company said U.S. sales of drug-eluting coronary stents were up year over year — $238 million for the quarter, versus $175 million for the year-earlier period. This is striking not only because it’s been a tough few years for stent sales, but also because Johnson & Johnson, Boston Scientific’s old stent-market rival, last week reported lower year-over-year U.S. sales of drug-eluting stents for the quarter. One key difference between the companies: Boston Scientific’s numbers include its sales of a stent called Promus — which is actually the same stent

also sold by Abbott under the brand name Xience. That stent was approved for U.S. use in July last year, which means it wasn’t included in Q2 sales for ‘08. The company doesn’t break out its stent sales by brand, so we don’t know exactly how much of the sales come from Promus, and how much come from the company’s Taxus stents. Boston Scientific sells Promus under a license, which makes it less profitable for the company than its own Taxus stent. So if Taxus is losing share to Promus, the rise in sales could be accompanied by a decline in margin for the company’s stent business. Image via Abbott

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Stent Sales: Up for Boston Scientific, Down for J&J