August 30 2009
AstraZeneca in drug breakthrough
Drugs giant AstraZeneca has announced trials of a new blood thinning pill had produced a 16% drop in heart attack and stoke deaths among patients.
The group said the drug, Brilinta, worked better than Plavix, which is currently the world's second biggest selling drug, without increasing the risk of bleeding, a common side effect of medication that reduces heart attacks through preventing blood clots.
AstraZeneca now plans to apply for regulatory approval for Brilinta in the United states and Europe during the final quarter of the year, with a view to making it available as soon as possible, and possibly by the end of 2010.
The group announced the results of the trial at the European Society of Cardiology congress in Barcelona and published details in the New England Journal of Medicine.
Anders Ekblom, AstraZeneca executive vice-president development, said: "The PLATO (trial) data suggest ticagrelor (Brilinta) could be a valuable new option for a broad range of acute coronary syndromes patients. We look forward to filing Brilinta with regulatory authorities in the fourth quarter."
The positive results of the trial should help the drug to win a slice of the Plavix market, which is worth around 9 billion US dollars (£5.5bn) a year.
Consensus forecasts from analysts had predicted that the drug could generate worldwide annual sales of around 700 million US dollars (£430.4m) a year by 2014/2015.
But they are now expected to increase these figures following the better than expected results of the trial.
Analysts at Bank of America Merrill Lynch have reportedly indicated that they may raise their forecast for sales by 2015 from 500 million US dollars (£430.4m) to 1.3 billion US dollars (£799.3m).
Such a rise would help to relive some of the pressure on the group, which has seen its drugs sales hit by cheaper generic rivals. The group announced earlier this year that it was axing a further 6,000 jobs worldwide as part of a programme to reduce its workforce, bringing total job cuts to 15,000.
Copyright (c) Press Association Ltd. 2009, All Rights Reserved.
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