Novartis drug may be breakthrough for heart patients

Swiss pharma group Novartis has reported striking efficacy by an experimental drug in prolonging the lives of people with heart failure in a development that could significantly boost the firm's prospects.

The drug reduced both the risk of dying from cardiovascular causes and of being hospitalised for worsening heart failure by about 20 per cent in a large clinical trial. It may replace the bedrock treatment for the last 20 years, researchers said.

“I think that when physicians see these data, they will find it compelling, and what we will see is a paradigm shift,” said Dr Milton Packer, a professor of clinical sciences at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Centre in Dallas and a principal investigator in the study.

The results were presented at the European Society of Cardiology congress in Barcelona at the weekend.

Novartis executives say the company will file for approval of the drug, LCZ696, in Europe in the first quarter of 2015. The drug could get to patients as early as next year.

LCZ696 is a combination of two drugs. One is valsartan, the blockbuster Novartis sells as Diovan. The other component inhibits the enzyme neprilysin, a new mechanism for a heart failure drug. Novartis could use a hit to make up for declining sales of Diovan, which has lost patent protection. A success with LCZ696 would help offset inability to win regulatory approval for serelaxin.– (New York Times)