Posted on 10/07/2006 in Pharmaceutical Company Product News Atacand, the AstraZeneca angiotensin receptor blocker (ARB), has been described as being able to "significantly reduce" the incidence of atrial fibrillation, one of the most common heart arrhythmias.
Atrial fibrillation is one of the most common arrythmias. In a study recently published in the American Heart Journal, 7,601 patients were randomised to receive either Atacand or a placebo. After treatment, 6,379 did not have atrial fibrillation and of the 392 who developed it during follow-up, 177 were of the Atacand group.
Medical News Today quotes lead investigator, Dr Anique Ducharme of the Montreal Heart Institute, Canada, as saying: "These exciting data are the first to show that the ARB Atacand can reduce the incidence of atrial fibrillation in such a wide spectrum of heart failure patients including those receiving standard optimal therapy."
"The development of AF is clearly undesirable in chronic heart failure and treatments that can prevent it offer a significant advance in the management of chronic heart failure," she added.
Atacand raised $974 million in worldwide sales during 2005. It was first launched in 1997 as a hypertension drug and has been approved in over 70 countries. It is also marketed by Takeda in some regions and the drug was approved for chronic heart failure in patients with left ventricular systolic dysfunction in 2004.
Last month, NICE published revised clinical guidelines for the management of atrial fibrillation, detailing the tests that should be performed to diagnose the condition and the treatments patients can expect.
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