SUNDAY, Aug. 26 (HealthDay News) -- The newer blood thinner Effient is no more effective than the widely used Plavix in preventing death, heart attacks or strokes, new research finds.
Nor is Effient (prasugrel) any safer than Plavix (clopidogrel) when it comes to bleeding complications in patients with acute coronary syndrome who have not had revascularization procedures such as bypass surgery or stenting.
The findings are scheduled to be presented Sunday at the European Society of Cardiology annual meeting in Munich and simultaneously published online in the New England Journal of Medicine.
The study was funded by Eli Lilly and Co. and Daiichi Sankyo Co., which co-developed Effient.
Acute coronary syndrome (ACS) includes heart attacks and other conditions, such as angina, which result from blocked coronary arteries.
Roughly 60 percent of patients with ACS undergo revascularization procedures to restore blood flow to the heart while the remaining 40 percent are managed by medications alone, the researchers said.
A previous trial of more than 13,000 ACS patients who were about to receive stents found that Effient was about 20 percent more effective than Plavix in preventing death, heart attacks and stroke. However, Effient also resulted in more cases of fatal bleeding.
This study was designed to look at a completely different group of ACS patients: those who did not undergo a revascularization procedure.
"This group of patients has never been exclusively studied before in a large-scale trial," said study author Dr. Matthew Roe, an associate professor of medicine at Duke University Medical Center in Durham, N.C.
Roe and other study authors reported financial ties with Eli Lilly, Daiichi Sankyo and other pharmaceutical companies.
For this study, 7,243 patients in 52 countries were randomized to receive 10 milligrams daily of Effi
'/>"/>
| Copyright©2012 ScoutNews,LLC. All rights reserved |