Coversyl cuts cardiac events in CAD

Treatment with the long-acting ACE inhibitor perindopril (which is marketed by France's Laboratories Servier as Coversyl), in addition to other preventive medicines, should be considered in all patients with coronary heart disease. This is the conclusion of the investigators presenting at the European Society of Cardiology in Vienna, Austria, and published in The Lancet September 1.

Dubbed EUROPA, their study showed that perindopril significantly reduced the combined risk of cardiovascular death, myocardial infarction and cardiac arrest in patients with stable coronary artery disease. If applied to the UK CAD population, this means that at least 50,000 primary events could be avoided over four years.

EUROPA is the first study to demonstrate the efficacy and safety profile of ACE inhibition in a broad spectrum of patients with stable CAD, even those without evidence of heart failure, over and above the benefits of current standard preventive therapies (aspirin, statins and beta blockers). It is also the largest study ever conducted in patients with this condition. Over 12,000 patients from 24 European countries (including 1,772 from the UK) were randomized to 8mg/day perindopril or placebo, in addition to standard therapy, for an average of 4.2 years.