US FDA at last approves AstraZeneca blood-thinning drug Brilinta

There was much awaited good news for Anglo-Swedish drug major AstraZeneca (LSE: AZN) last night, when the US Food and Drug Administration approved the company’s blood-thinning drug Brilinta (ticagrelor) to reduce cardiovascular death and heart attack in patients with acute coronary syndromes (ACS).

AstraZeneca’s shares rose as high as 2.7% to $50.77 in after-market trading in the USA last night. The stock gained 3.3% to £31.32 in London early this morning.

Also using the trade name Brilique, ticagrelor has already been cleared in 39 markets including the European Union, Australia, Brazil and Canada, and has been forecast as having a peak sales potential of $2 billion to $3.3 billion. Analysts at Barclays Capital are even more optimistic, suggesting that sales of Brilinta could peak at $4.3 billion, a very useful contribution for AstraZeneca which is facing a number of important drug patent expiries. The drug will compete with Sanofi’s $9.8 billion a year blockbuster Plavix (clopidogrel). However, in several clinical studies ticagrelor has shown superiority over Plavix, which is now beginning to face generic competition in Europe and will do so next May in the USA.