HERO Study Finds Hirulog Benefit In Heart Attack

Biogen's hirulog has shown a statistically significant improvement compared to conventional unfractionated heparin in opening blood vessels of patients after myocardial infarction, including patients who received treatment late after onset of symptoms began. The findings of the study, known as HERO, were presented on March 26 at the American College of Cardiology annual meeting in Orlando, Florida, USA.

High and low doses of hirulog were compared to standard heparin in MI patients who also received streptokinase and aspirin. The primary endpoint was the incidence of early TIMI Grade III patency, indicating normal flow of blood through vessels. TIMI-III patency has been directly correlated with improvements in survival and cardiac function in MI patients. In HERO, around half the patients receiving high-dose hirulog showed fully open vessels within 90-120 minutes, compared to a third of heparin patients.

Biogen notes that this is the first time a thrombin inhibitor given as an adjunct therapy to streptokinase has been linked to improvements in early patency. There was no increase in bleeding risk associated with hirulog administration. In addition, there were benefits in patients receiving high-dose hirulog who were treated within six to 12 hours of symptom onset - they showed a 100% increase in the rate of vessel opening at 90-120 minutes compared with heparin-treated patients.