Aims: This study sought to evaluate the safety and efficacy of the NOYA stent which is a cobalt chromium-based sirolimus-eluting stent (SES) with DL-polylactide biodegradable polymer (Medfavour Medical, Beijing, China) in treating de novo coronary artery lesions. Methods and results: The NOYA I trial was designed to compare the NOYA stent with the FIREBIRD2 (TM) stent, a durable polymer SES widely used in China (MicroPort Medical, Shanghai, China); the trial was a non-inferiority trial with a primary angiographic endpoint of the in-stent late lumen loss (LLL) at nine-month follow-up. The secondary endpoints were binary restenosis rates within nine months, major adverse cardiac events (MACE) defined as the composite of cardiac death, myocardial infarction (MI) or target lesion revascularisation (TLR), and definite/probable stent thrombosis (ST) at 24-month follow-up. A total of 300 patients (n=150 in each group) were enrolled in the study from 16 Chinese centres. The LLL in the NOYA group at nine-month follow-up was similar to the FIREBIRD2 group (0.11 +/- 0.18 mm vs. 0.14 +/- 0.23 mm, p=0.16; non-inferiority p < 0.001). The rates of MACE, death, MI and TLR at 24-month follow-up were comparable between these two devices (p > 0.05, respectively). Conclusions: The biodegradable polymer NOYA stent was non-inferior to the FIREBIRD2 durable polymer stent with respect to the primary non-inferiority endpoint of in-stent LLL at nine-month follow-up. Clinical outcomes at 24-month follow-up were comparable between the two stents. (ClinicalTrials.gov number, NCT01226355)