Medical device firm’s Q1 profits up

Medtronic, the world’s biggest maker of heart-rhythm devices, said first-quarter profit climbed 5.2% as doctors embraced the company’s newest drug-coated stent to prop open clogged arteries.

Net income in the three months ended Jul 27 increased to $864m (€685m), or 83c a share, from $821m, or 77 cents, a year earlier, the Minneapolis-based company said. Profit excluding one-time items of 85c a share matched the average of 22 analyst estimates compiled by Bloomberg. Revenue increased to $4.01bn from $3.95bn a year earlier.

Doctors favoured Medtronic’s Resolute stent, approved in the US in February, helping sales of the company’s drug-eluting stents to increase 36% on a constant currency basis.