Bayer’s new heart failure drug passing tests with flying colors

Bayer is getting close to putting a new heart failure drug into its final-stage testing.

The new medication for cardiovascular treatments has so far proved a reduction in deaths at the mid-stage trial. With ambitions encouraged, the German company is hoping to live up to its already successful stroke prevention pill Xarelto and eye treatment Eylea, according to Fox News.

The new billion-dollar-potential heart drug called finerenone is still several years away from reaching the market. The drug is an improved version of the other less dependable heart drugs available in the current market called mineralocorticoid receptor antagonists (MRAs).

The MRAs spironolactone and eplerenone, branded as Inspra by Pfizer, are not the right fit for many patients as they both cause abnormally high levels of potassium in the blood. This condition is known to lead to irregular heart beat and sometimes, cardiac arrest.

But the edge Bayer has with its new pill is that it works differently than the others and has so far shown that it also avoids the current issues in the class. Because of its promise, cardiologists are closely watching its development.

“If you can eliminate hyperkalaemia (high potassium) that would be a huge benefit to patients,” said Mary Norine Walsh, vice president of the American College of Cardiology, who was not involved in the research.

The second phase trail data was presented on Monday in London showing that finerenone led to fewer deaths and hospital admissions among the participants who used it during a 90 day treatment than those in a control group on eplerenone.

“We didn’t expect to see these clearly better results already in Phase II,” said Frank Misselwitz, head of the therapeutic area cardiovascular and coagulation at Bayer.

The company is now moving on to larger tests in order to confirm the increased benefit.

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