Possible New Lease On Life For Two Cardiology Drugs From Merck And J&J

Early next year an FDA panel will review a new drug from Merck and a new indication for Xarelto (rivaroxaban), Johnson & Johnson’s highly successful new oral anticoagulant. Both drugs have had a rocky road getting to this stage and their success is by no means assured, but the announcement of the meeting of the FDA’s Cardiovascular and Renal…

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Flu Vaccine May Help Prevent Cardiovascular Events

A new meta-analysis published in JAMA offers the best evidence yet that the flu vaccine may help prevent cardiovascular events. Jacob  Udell and colleagues analyzed data from 5 published clinical trials in which 6,469 patients were randomized. People who received the flu vaccine had a significantly lower risk of cardiovascular events. The protective effect was largely restricted to…

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Younger Women With Acute Coronary Syndromes Less Likely To Have Classic Chest Pain

Younger women with an acute coronary syndrome are slightly less likely than men to present with the classic symptom of chest pain, according to a new study published in JAMA Internal Medicine. In recent years there has been a growing understanding that women with ACS are less likely to have chest pain and, partly as a result,…

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New Test Could Speed Heart Attack Treatment In The Emergency Department

Only 1 in 10 patients with acute chest pain in the emergency department turn out to have an actual heart attack (myocardial infarction), yet many are not released from the hospital until after 6-12 hours of cardiac monitoring and multiple ECG and troponin tests. The search for a test that can rule out MI early in…

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FDA Turns Back New Indication For Rivaroxaban To Prevent Stent Thrombosis In ACS Patients

Johnson & Johnson said today that it had received a complete response letter from the FDA for the supplemental new drug application for rivaroxaban (Xarrelto) for the prevention of stent thrombosis in patients with acute coronary syndromes (ACS). Earlier this year the FDA turned down for the second time the sNDA for the  general use of rivaroxaban to…

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