Cook Incorporated Launches Retrievable Günther Tulip™
Vena Cava Filter At 2003 VEITH Symposium

Bloomington, Ind. - The retrievable Günther Tulip™ Vena Cava Filter from Cook Incorporated will be introduced to the U.S. market at the VEITHSymposium Nov. 20-22 in New York City, Cook Incorporated officials reported. The device received U.S. Food and Drug Administration clearance October 31 to treat U.S. patients who may need temporary protection from pulmonary embolism (PE) if their risk of embolism has diminished.

The Günther Tulip is an implanted vascular filter used to capture blood clots caused by trauma, surgery or other medical conditions before they can reach the lungs, causing a pulmonary embolism. Each year, an estimated 600,000 U.S. residents experience a pulmonary embolism, causing up to 200,000 deaths domestically. The Günther Tulip is a cone-shaped wire device incorporating a unique hook on the top that facilitates retrieval by the physician. The filter wires form the shape of tulip petals, thereby giving the device its name.

"Adding a retrievable indication to our Günther Tulip Vena Cava Filter is another step in our long-term business strategy to provide the industry's most advanced line of interventional devices for the peripheral vasculature," explained Kem Hawkins, president and CEO of Cook Incorporated. "With exciting new products in the pipeline for treating aneurysmal disease and venous insufficiency, physicians can expect even more innovation from Cook than ever before."

The Günther Tulip Vena Cava Filter, developed jointly by William Cook Europe and Rolf Günther, M.D., was designed as both a temporary and permanent filter. The Günther Tulip has been used as a retrievable filter in thousands of patients in Europe since 1992, and in Canada since 1998.

With international headquarters in Bloomington, Ind., privately held COOK® (www.cookgroup.com) is a leading designer, manufacturer and global distributor of minimally invasive medical device technology for diagnostic and therapeutic procedures. Since its founding in 1963, Cook has created innovative technologies for stents and stent-grafts, catheters, wire guides, introducer needles and sheaths, embolization coils, medical biomaterials, vena cava filters, and other minimally invasive medical devices.

MEDIA CONTACT:
David McCarty
Director of Public Relations
Cook Incorporated - 812-339-2235 ext. 2387
Email: dmccarty@cook-inc.com

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