Procoralan cuts risk of CV events when added to optimal therapy

The results of the BEAUTIFUL trial show that coronary artery disease patients with left ventricular dysfunction and a heart rate over 70 beats per minute have a significantly higher risk of cardiovascular death and, in these patients, treatment with French drugmaker Servier's Procoralan (ivabradine) further reduces the risk of the most important coronary events such as fatal and non-fatal myocardial infarction and coronary revascularization by one third, even when these patients are already receiving optimal therapy.

Commenting on the data, which were presented at the Congress of the European Society of Cardiology, in Munich, Germany, the chairman of the study's executive committee, Kim Fox, said: "ivabradine was always known to relieve ischemia. With the BEAUTIFUL results, ivabradine is the first anti-anginal treatment shown to reduce myocardial infarction and revascularisation and to have a good tolerability profile even when used with other drugs. This is the gold standard for any anti-anginal, anti-ischemic drug."

In the overall study population, treatment with ivabradine did not result in a significant reduction of the primary composite end point (cardiovascular death, admission to hospital for either acute MI or for heart failure). However, in patients with baseline heart rate of more than 70 bpm, ivabradine significantly reduced the risk of hospitalization for fatal and non-fatal myocardial infarction by 36% (p=0.001) and the risk of coronary revascularization by 30% (p=0.016).