Johnson & Johnson plans to leave the market later this year for the drug-coated heart stents it pioneered, a move that analysts say bodes well for rivals Boston Scientific Corp. and Medtronic Inc.

The New Jersey maker of Cypher and Cypher Select Plus stents, plus an experimental next-generation stent called Nevo, has lost considerable ground to competitors in the drug-coated stent market since the product's blockbuster introduction in 2003.

Part of a $4 billion global market, stents are tiny mesh struts that prop open clogged heart arteries. When coated with drugs, vessels are less likely to reclog. The device revolutionized the field of cardiology because it let some patients avoid more-invasive open-heart surgery.

J&J, once the world's leading maker of the artery-clearing devices, has lost ground to Boston Scientific and Abbott Laboratories in a market where fierce competition dragged down prices, said Jeff Jonas, an analyst with Gabelli & Co. Inc.

J&J suspended a clinical trial last year for the Nevo stent after encountering difficulties with a catheter used to insert the device in patients.

"The market's just so unattractive for drug-eluting stents right now and expectations for Nevo weren't very high," Jonas said. "This is just them finally throwing in the towel."

The news proved "disappointing" to Gary Maharaj, CEO of Eden Prairie-based SurModics Inc., which provides the polymer coating on the Cypher stent.

J&J pays SurModics royalties to use the polymer. But as sales of Cypher have declined, so too have SurModics' royalties. In its most-recent fiscal year, Cypher royalty revenue declined 26 percent.

Still, Maharaj said in a prepared statement that the news wasn't a big surprise and won't affect the company's fiscal 2011 guidance. "We have long anticipated the continuing decline of royalties from Cypher in our strategic and operating plans," he said. SurModics will continue to provide its coating technology for other J&J products, he added.

Shares of SurModics dropped 17 percent Wednesday on the news, closing at $11.01 a share.

Analysts said rival Boston Scientific, which employs about 2,500 people at its stent division in Maple Grove, will benefit most from the news. Collins Stewart analyst Tao Levy estimates Boston Scientific could gain additional revenue of $175 million in 2012 and 2013.

Another perk: "One less [drug-coated stent] player means that pricing could become more stable," he wrote in a note to investors Wednesday.

Other players in the drug-coated stent market, Abbott Laboratories and Medtronic, will benefit, too, said Morgan Stanley analyst David Lewis.

J&J expects to take a second-quarter charge of $500 million to $600 million related to restructuring plans for its Cordis division, which makes stents. It will also close manufacturing facilities in Puerto Rico and Ireland, and expects to cut up to 1,000 jobs.

Seth Fischer, Cordis' chairman, said the decision was based on "evolving market dynamics."

Bloomberg News contributed to this report. Janet Moore • 612-673-7752