Brilinta significantly reduces CV events and coronary death beyond one year

Anglo-Swedish drug major AstraZeneca (LSE: AZN) was up more than 1% at £47.80 this morning, after it released new data on its blood thinner Brilinta (ticagrelor) showing that it significantly reduced cardiovascular events and coronary death.

Brilinta, one of the firm’s top four selling drugs, generated sales of $1.1 billion, a year-on-year rise of 29%.

A new sub-analysis of the Phase III PEGASUS-TIMI 54 trial demonstrated a risk reduction of 19% in MACE (the composite of CV death, myocardial infarction, or stroke) (HR 0.81; 95% CI, 0.7–0.95) and of 36% in coronary death (HR 0.64; 95% CI, 0.45–0.89) from treatment with Brilinta 60mg, in combination with low dose aspirin, in people who had survived a heart attack and had stenosis (abnormal narrowing) in two or more coronary blood vessels, a condition known as multi-vessel disease (MVD).