AstraZeneca suffers Brilinta blow in peripheral artery disease

Anglo-Swedish pharma major AstraZeneca’s (LSE: AZN) Brilinta (ticagrelor) did not demonstrate a benefit over clopidogrel in symptomatic peripheral artery disease (PAD), thereby failing to meet the primary endpoint of the study.

The EUCLID trial included 13,885 patients in 28 countries and is the largest cardiovascular (CV) outcomes study to date conducted exclusively in symptomatic patients with PAD. It studied the use of Brilinta 90mg tablets twice daily versus clopidogrel 75mg once daily for the prevention of atherothrombotic events – a composite of cardiovascular death, heart attack or ischemic stroke. The primary endpoint of the study was the time to first occurrence of any such event.

PAD is the third most common cause of CV complications in the world. It is a chronic and progressive clinical manifestation of a systemic atherosclerotic vascular disease and a predictor of future vascular events.