Drug-eluting stents are one of the most successful medical devices ever, but even their manufacturers don't have adequate solutions for a hidden problem in drug-device combination products: the best way to get drugs on devices on a large scale. That's the contention of Russ Granzow, who is head of the life sciences and health care operations at SRI International division Sarnoff Corp. , a technology development company.
Although tens of thousands of drug-coated stents run through manufacturing plants each day, making them is a relatively manual process....