Medtronic Inc. CEO Art Collins expects sales to accelerate in the U.S. as the year goes on for implantable cardioverter defibrillators despite the slowing of revenues in the first half of 2006, according to the Associated Press. Speaking at a health-care conference sponsored by Goldman Sachs in Dana Point, CA, Collins said that while U.S. ICD sales growth has slowed at present, the Minneapolis, MN-based company’s international ICD sales have increased. Collins said about 25% of the potential U.S. market has been penetrated, compared to about only about 10 percent of the market in Western Europe, and even less in other international markets. Sales of ICDs overall were hurt last year by product recalls at Medtronic and Indianapolis, IN-based Guidant Corp., now a unit of Natick, MA-based Boston Scientific Corp. Medtronic has an estimated 53% of the worldwide ICD market share. Collins said at the conference that the medical device company has specific plans to increase sales in the U.S. throughout the year. They include increasing efforts to get referrals by sending its salesforce to cardiologists and referring physicians, increasing its public relations activity on the importance of ICD therapy, improving products and conducting more clinical trials, Collins said.