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AstraZeneca says Exanta better than rival drug

Our City Staff
Tuesday 29 October 2002 01:00 GMT
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AstraZeneca said yesterday its experimental drug Exanta was better at cutting the risk of blood clots in knee and hip replacement patients than the standard treatment, Aventis's Lovenox.

A head-to-head Phase III clinical trial showed Exanta reduced the relative risk of major venous thromboembolism – blood clots blocking veins – by 63 per cent compared to Lovenox.

Exanta is one of a number of new drugs that Europe's second-biggest drug maker hopes will make up for declining sales of ulcer pill Losec, which had worldwide revenues of nearly £4bn last year.

Industry analysts believe Exanta could become a $1bn a year (£641m) product by 2006, provided it clears regulatory hurdles. There have been concerns about the drug's possible liver toxicity.

Andrew Pendrill, an analyst at ABN Amro, said a key advantage of Exanta was its dosing. In the trial patients were given Exanta as an injection prior to surgery and three days afterwards, but were then switched to oral doses.

Lovenox, meanwhile, must be given entirely by injection.

Shares in AstraZeneca rose 12p to 2,377p as the Exanta news outweighed weekend reports of more deaths in Japan linked with its lung cancer drug Iressa.

Exanta works by inhibiting thrombin, a key enzyme involved in the blood clotting process, and marks a breakthrough in the treatment of thrombosis, a major killer in the Western world.

AstraZeneca said the market for anti-coagulants – treatments for preventing blood clots – was valued at $3.1bn.

The drug's biggest potential, however, may lie not in stopping clots after surgery but in preventing strokes in patients with atrial fibrillation – characterised by fast heart rates in the upper chambers of the heart. Analysts do not expect the drug to win approval in this indication until about 2004.

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