New heart failure drug saves lives, cuts hospitalizations: study

A new study reports one of the biggest potential advances against heart failure in more than a decade — a first-of-a-kind, experimental drug that lowered the chances of death or hospitalization by about 20 per cent. Doctors say the Novartis drug — for now called LCZ696 — seems like one of those rare, breakthrough therapies that could quickly change care for 24 million people worldwide with heart failure. There has been little progress for more than a decade in treating chronic heart failure, in which the heart fails to pump enough blood around the body, so there is excitement about the new medicine among both doctors and investors.

This is a new day [for patients] … It’s been at least a decade since we’ve had a breakthrough of this magnitude.

Dr. Clyde Yancy, cardiology chief at Northwestern University in Chicago and a former American Heart Association president

The study involved nearly 8,500 people in 47 countries and was the largest experiment ever done in heart failure. It was paid for, designed and partly run by Novartis, based in Basel, Switzerland. Independent monitors stopped the study in April, seven months earlier than planned, when it was clear the drug was better than an older one that is standard now. During the 27-month study, the Novartis drug cut the chances of dying of heart-related causes by 20 per cent and for any reason by 16 per cent, compared to the older drug. It also reduced the risk of being hospitalized for heart failure by 21 per cent.

We are really excited. We now have a way of stabilizing and managing their disease which is better than what we could offer them before.

Study co-leader Dr. Milton Packer of UT Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas

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