Endeavor Registry Data Confirms High Deliverability Success and Broad, Everyday Use by Physicians; Includes Difficult to Treat Patients with Complex Lesions and Diabetes

Prof. Chaim Lotan, M.D., Co-Principal Investigator ofthe Medtronic e-Five international registry and head of the HadassahUniversity Hospital Heart Institute, Jerusalem, Israel, todaypresented preliminary demographic data from the registry confirmingthat the Endeavor(TM) Drug-Eluting Coronary Stent is being implantedin a broad spectrum of patients during routine clinical practice. Thisexperience includes patients with diabetes, tortuous calcifiedlesions, and small blood vessels. Prof. Lotan made the presentationduring a Medtronic-sponsored symposium at the Paris Course onRevascularization (EuroPCR).

The e-Five registry is an 8,000 patient prospective, multi-centerstudy designed as an "all comers" trial to assess the safety of theEndeavor stent at more than 200 sites in Europe, Asia, Australia, andother locations outside the United States, with a primary endpoint ofMajor Adverse Cardiac Events (MACE) at one year. The study hasenrolled approximately 2,500 patients.

The Endeavor drug eluting coronary stent received CE Mark approvalin late July 2005 and is now available in more than 85 countriesaround the world. The Endeavor stent is not approved for use in theUnited States. Medtronic filed its first Pre-Market Approval (PMA)module with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in October 2005. Thecompany remains on track for PMA approval in calendar year 2007.

Prof. Lotan reported that physicians implanting the stent as partof their normal, everyday practice have been successful in deliveringthe stent to the lesion 99.5 percent of the time. The Endeavor stentis made of a cobalt alloy and has a unique modular architecturedesigned to enhance deliverability. Prof. Lotan also reported thatapproximately 35 percent of these patients are afflicted with diabetesand that small vessel sizes - those 2.25 to 2.75 mm in diameter -account for 42 percent of the total Endeavor stents implanted in theregistry to date.

"These are important findings because it indicates physicians arecomfortable using the Endeavor stent in a wide variety of cases on aneveryday basis," he said. "Based on this early look at the data,especially the high delivery success rate, implanting physicians canhave confidence that the Endeavor stent will perform well in manytypes of cases, whether they are routine or in patients with complexmedical conditions."

The average stent length in the registry is 17.6 mm, with 1.4stents implanted per patient. In addition, more than 35 percent of thepatients had a previous myocardial infarction and 33 percent hadunstable angina at the time of the stent implant. Medtronic (NYSE:MDT) will present additional results from the registry in the fall.

The other Co-Principal Investigators of the e-Five registry areProf. Martin Rothman, The London Chest Hospital, London, U.K., andProf. Ian Meredith, M.D. Monash Medical Centre, Melbourne, Australia.

About Medtronic

Medtronic, Inc. (www.medtronic.com), headquartered in Minneapolis,is the global leader in medical technology - alleviating pain,restoring health, and extending life for millions of people around theworld.

Caution: In the United States, the Endeavor drug-eluting CoronaryStent is an investigational device with an investigational drug(zotarolimus, ABT-578) and exclusively for clinical investigation.

Any forward-looking statements are subject to risks anduncertainties such as those described in Medtronic's Quarterly Reporton Form 10-Q for the quarter ended January 27, 2006. Actual resultsmay differ materially from anticipated results.