NEWS BRIEFS
NEWS BRIEFS
Update:
New VegF data disappointing’
The March 1999 issue of Cost Management in Cardiac Care announced a promising new growth hormone that might prove to be an alternative to heart surgery (see p. 31). Any runaway excitement over the drug came to a screeching halt late February when San Francisco-based Genentech, the drug’s manufacturer, announced that the latest data on VegF (vascular endothelial growth factor) are disappointing.
Growing their own
Researchers hoped the protein would enable people with angina to "grow" their own bypass vessels, thereby eliminating the necessity for grafting or angioplasty. A clinical trial involving more than 170 people across the country had been scheduled to be presented in March at the American College of Cardiology conference in New Orleans. The company now states the data need to be more fully analyzed.
MERIT-HF: Metoprolol improves survival in CHF patients
Adding the beta blocker metoprolol (Astra Pharmaceuticals’ Toprol-XL) to standard treatment for patients with congestive heart failure (CHF) can help reduce all-cause mortality and improve survival by about 35%, researchers say. An international study of almost 4,000 people with heart failure was stopped three years earlier than planned so all participants could be offered the beta-blocker.
Trial examined beta blocker’s efficacy
The Metoprolol CR/XL (Controlled Release) Randomised Intervention Trial in Heart Failure (MERIT-HF) is the largest heart failure trial ever completed evaluating the efficacy of a beta blocker. In it, patients with moderate-to-severe heart failure were randomized to once-daily doses of placebo or metoprolol, titrating from 12.5 mg or 25 mg to 200 mg per day over six weeks.
The findings were presented at the American Heart Association’s 71st scientific sessions in Dallas last fall. The main aim of the study was to investigate the impact of the drug compared with placebo on survival of patients with heart failure; other outcome measures such as reduction in hospitalizations, quality of life, and health economics were also measured.
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