HEART FAILURE DRUG PROLONGS LIFE AND IS COST-EFFECTIVE

Main Menu | News By Date | News By Supplier | News By Category | About Us

HEART FAILURE DRUG PROLONGS LIFE AND IS COST-EFFECTIVE
19 February 2007 - Emory University

Drug therapy, even when safe and effective for serious health problems, can have a downside, a hefty price tag. But there's good news for people suffering from left ventricular systolic dysfunction and congestive heart failure following a heart attack. A study published today in Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association, concludes the drug eplerenone can not only help many of these people live longer, it is also remarkably cost effective, according to lead author William S. Weintraub, MD, of the Emory Heart Center.

Eplerenone is in a class of medications that blocks aldosterone, a hormone involved in regulating blood levels of sodium and potassium as well as the constriction of blood vessels. Data from the Eplerenone Post-Acute Myocardial Infarction Heart Failure Efficacy and Survival Study, an international multi-center clinical trial, shows that CHF patients treated with eplerenone had a two percent absolute reduction in deaths compared to those given a placebo.

"We found a significant decrease in mortality," says Dr. Weintraub, Director of the Emory Center for Outcomes Research. "In addition to being medically effective, eplerenone is also cost effective, adding only about $3.60 (wholesale), on average, to treatment costs."

After a heart attack, about 22 percent of men and 46 percent of women develop CHF, which occurs when the heart loses some of its ability to pump blood through the body. When compared to heart attack patients without heart failure, those with CHF have double the risk of dying or suffering another heart attack within the first 30 days. To find out if eplerenone could lower that risk, EPHESUS researchers enrolled 6,632 patients at 671 medical centers in 37 countries between December 1999 and December 2001. All patients received optimal medical care, including standard medications (ACE inhibitors, diuretics, beta-blockers, and statins) and angioplasty to restore blood flow to the heart.

Approximately half the patients were given eplerenone in the randomized study while the others took placebo pills. After following the study participants an average of 16 months, the researchers found the eplerenone group had fewer deaths from all causes than the placebo treated patients. The treated group also had less specifically heart related deaths and fewer hospitalizations from cardiovascular problems.

"We also calculated patients' quality-adjusted life years by having EPHESUS participants answer questionnaires that rated their quality of life from one to zero, with one being a perfect life and zero being death. We then multiplied survival by that score to arrive at the quality-adjusted years. We found the average cost for each quality-life-year gained by the patients treated with eplerenone was $13,718. Health economists generally regard any price below $50,000 a year as cost-effective," explains Dr. Weintraub. "Clearly, EPHESUS has provided multiple reasons why eplerenone should be added to other standard therapies when heart failure develops following a heart attack."

Co-authors of the study are Emory researchers Zefeng Zhang, MD, Elizabeth M. Mahoney, ScD, and Paul Kolm, PhD; John A. Spertus, MD,MPH, of the Mid America Heart Institute; Jaime Caro, MD and Jack Ishak, MSc of the Caro Research Institute, Inc.; Robert Goldberg, PhD, of the University of Massachusetts; Joseph Tooley, PharmD, of Prudential Equity Group; Richard Willke, PhD, of Pfizer, Inc; and Bertram Pitt, MD, of the University of Michigan.

http://www.emory.edu

About: Emory University
Emory University is home to nine major academic divisions, numerous centres for advanced study, and a host of prestigious affiliated institutions. In addition to Emory College, the University encompasses a graduate school of arts and sciences; professional schools of medicine, theology, law, nursing, public health, and business; and Oxford College, a two-year undergraduate division on the original campus of Emory in Oxford, Ga.

Emory was founded at Oxford by the Methodist Church in 1836. Led by President James W. Wagner, an award-winning teacher and scholar, the University has 11,300 students and 2,500 faculty members who represent all regions of the United States and more than 100 foreign nations.

Emory University is known for its demanding academics, outstanding undergraduate college of arts and sciences, highly ranked professional schools and state-of-the-art research facilities. For more than a decade Emory has been named one of the country's top 25 national universities by U.S. News & World Report. In addition to its nine schools, the university encompasses The Carter Center, Yerkes National Primate Research Center and Emory Healthcare, a comprehensive metropolitan health care system.

More News:
  • For February 2007
  • From Emory University
  • For University