Abbott Laboratories said that its experimental heart failure drug Simdax failed to hit a primary endpoint of reducing death by 25 percent after six months of treatment. Presenting the data at the American Heart Association meeting in Dallas, Abbott said that the drug showed early signs of reducing deaths among the 1,327 patients in the trial. Researchers were comparing Simdax with dobutamine. An earlier trial demonstrated that patients taking the drug had a better chance of seeing a clinical improvement. "While the ambitious endpoint for the trial was not met, important survival trends attributed to levosimendan (Simdax) were seen early in the trial," said Dr. Alexandre Mebazaa, the study's lead investigator.
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AHA: Also in Dallas, Takeda reported that secondary analysis of a study of Actos demonstrated a 28 percent reduction in heart attacks among diabetics and a 37 percent reduction in acute coronary syndrome. Release
AHA: A new study of AstraZeneca's Crestor taken in combination with ezetimibe led to a 67 percent reduction of "bad" cholesterol. Report