AstraZeneca initiates two additional global studies with Brilinta

Anglo-Swedish drug major AstraZeneca (LSE: AZN) plans to conduct two new clinical studies as part of PARTHENON, the company’s largest clinical trial program involving over 80,000 patients.

The studies are designed to build scientific understanding of its new cardiovascular drug Brilinta (ticagrelor) in additional high-risk patient populations. PARTHENON will provide an unparalleled dataset to build scientific understanding of Brilinta in a broad a range of atherothrombotic conditions. AstraZeneca has approved more than 100 investigator sponsored studies, which will be starting during the coming year.

AstraZeneca is relying on Brilinta as a key driver of near-term sales and profit growth, however, since its launch two years ago, sales of the drug have been disappointing. Brilinta is currently not approved for the treatment of patients with ischemic stroke, TIA, peripheral artery disease, or for secondary prevention in patients with a history of previous myocardial infarction.