New drug 'spectacular' at preventing strokes: study

From the Montreal Gazette:
For the first time since the blood thinner warfarin was introduced more than half a century ago, Canadian researchers are reporting that a new drug is safer and more effective at reducing the risk of stroke in high-risk patients.

An estimated 250,000 Canadians suffer from atrial fibrillation, or AF, a potentially life-threatening heart rhythm disorder that causes the heart to quiver and beat chaotically. Blood can pool in the upper chambers of the heart, allowing clots to form and travel up to the arteries that feed the brain, creating a stroke. AF patients are at five times greater risk of developing stroke, and twice as likely to die from one, than patients without the condition.

The disorder affects about three per cent of the population over age 45, and about six per cent over age 65, according to the Heart and Stroke Foundation.

Warfarin has been the drug of choice for reducing stroke risk in atrial fibrillation for more than 20 years. But it increases the risk of major bleeding, sometimes into the brain. About half the patients who might benefit can't take it, "and when they do try and take it, they often end up having to stop it for a variety of reasons," says Dr. Stuart Connolly, a professor of medicine at McMaster University in Hamilton. ...more

New Remedies to Treat Blood Clots Are Near

From the Wall Street Journal:
Several big drug makers are in a neck-and-neck race to introduce new drugs for treating blood clots, which can lead to heart attacks and strokes, killing as many as a million people a year.

The prize is a chance at a piece of the blood-clot treatment market, which analysts estimate could be worth as much as €15 billion, or about $20 billion, by 2016.
[Treat Blood Clots]

Drugs currently used to prevent blood clots, also known as thrombosis, are effective and sell well but have problems. One popular treatment is difficult to dose and introduces risks when taken with other medicines and some foods. Another is an injectable, making long-term therapy difficult.

Five pharmaceutical companies are working on new treatments for blood clots. Three drugs -- developed by Bayer AG in partnerships with Johnson & Johnson, Boehringer Ingelheim GmbH, and Pfizer Inc. in partnership with Bristol Myers-Squibb Co. -- are now in the late phases of clinical testing.

The new drugs are taken by mouth, which makes them easier to use, their dosing is less troublesome, and they need no laboratory monitoring. They are also potentially more effective than existing treatments. The drug developed by Bayer and J&J has shown superior efficacy compared with standard therapy in a recent study. ...more

New Anti-Clotting Pill Works Well in Trials

From the Washington Post:
A new anti-clotting drug that could be one of the long-sought alternatives to commonly used blood thinners has performed well in hip and knee replacement patients, physicians report.

The drug, rivaroxaban, was more effective at reducing potentially fatal blood clots than heparin, with no increase in side effects, according to studies by three research teams reporting this week in theNew England Journal of MedicineandThe Lancet.

"It was superior to low molecular weight heparin, one of the two most common prophylaxis modalities in the United States," said Dr. William Geerts, a professor of medicine at the University of Toronto, and a member of a team that tested rivaroxaban after hip replacement surgery.
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Prophylaxis in this case means prevention of blood clots. Heparin is commonly used in hospitals because it is easier to manage than Coumadin (warfarin), which requires frequent blood tests for close control. The new drug, rivaroxaban, is an easily swallowed pill that does not require constant monitoring.

In the international trial of 4,541 people who had hip surgery, 1.1 percent of those given rivaroxaban suffered problems such as deep-vein blockage or pulmonary embolism, compared to 3.7 percent of those given enoxaparin, a widely used form of heparin. The incidence of major bleeding was similar in both groups -- six of 2,209 for rivaroxaban, and two of 2,224 for enoxaparin. ...more