Although current guidelines strongly recommend that dual antiplatelet therapy be administered early in treating patients with non-ST-segment-elevation acute myocardial infarction (NSTEMI), it is unclear whether pretreatment is beneficial,especially with the newer, more potent and more rapidly acting antiplatelet agents prasugrel (Effient, Lilly) and ticagrelor (Brilinta, AstraZeneca). Now a large new study, ACCOAST, presented at the European Society of…
TRILOGY At ESC: No Advantage For Prasugrel Over Clopidogrel In Medical ACS Patients
August 26, 2012 by Leave a Comment
The newer antiplatelet agent prasugrel was no better than the old standby clopidogrel for treating patients with acute coronary syndrome (ACS) who are not undergoing revascularization. The results of the TRILOGY ACS (Targeted Platelet Inhibition to Clarify the Optimal Strategy to Medically Manage Acute Coronary Syndromes) trial were presented by Matt Roe at the European Society of…
Ticagrelor Joins Clopidogrel And Prasugrel In Updated NSTEMI Guidelines
July 16, 2012 by Leave a Comment
Ticagrelor (Brilinta, AstraZeneca) gains equal standing with prasugrel (Effient, Lilly) and clopdiogrel in the newly released focused update of the ACCF/AHA guidelines for unstable angina and non-ST-elevation myocardial infarction (NSTEMI). The change had been widely anticipated since last year’s FDA approval of ticagrelor. “We have put it on equal footing with two other antiplatelet medications,…
FDA Approves Generic Clopidogrels As Plavix Loses Patent Protection
May 17, 2012 by 1 Comment
For the second time in the past six months, a cardiology mainstay drug has lost patent protection and gone generic. Today the FDA announced that it had approved several generic versions of clopidogrel (Plavix), the antiplatelet drug that for many years was the second best-selling drug in the world. Last November the best-selling drug of all time, Lipitor…
Proof-of-Concept for Bedside Rapid Genotyping Test of CYP2C19
March 28, 2012 by 1 Comment
A new point-of-care test can rapidly identify people with a common genetic variant associated with impaired clopidogrel function. The authors claim that this is the first study to demonstrate the feasibility of delivering a genetic test at bedside. In an article published online in the Lancet, Jason Roberts and colleagues report on a new point-of-care test that can…
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