AstraZeneca highlights flexibility of Brilinta/Brilique at ESC

Anglo-Swedish pharma major AstraZeneca (LSE: AZN) today announced the results of the Phase IV ATLANTIC study, which indicates that the profile of its cardiovascular drug Brilinta/Brilique (ticagrelor) is comparable whether administered in a pre-hospital or in-hospital setting to ST segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) patients.

The data will be presented later today during the European Society of Cardiology congress taking place between August 30 and September 3, 2014 in Barcelona, Spain.

Results of the ATLANTIC study were also published today in the New England Journal of Medicine. ATLANTIC was designed to evaluate pre-hospital administration versus in-hospital administration of ticagrelor in terms of pre-percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) - or angioplasty - procedural effectiveness, bleeding at 24 hours and 30 days and the pre-specified composite endpoint of death, myocardial infarction, stroke, urgent revascularization and definite acute stent thrombosis at 30 days. Research shows that the effectiveness of PCI may be impacted by delays caused when transferring patients with acute STEMI to the catheterisation lab in hospital, and that STEMI patients have a high risk of persistent and total coronary occlusion (obstruction of blood flow in the coronary artery), resulting in a higher risk of short-term mortality.