Vascepa, is the hot new heart drug on the market that has grabbed everyone’s attention. The reason: Vascepa cuts the risk of a patient’s first major heart attack or stroke, by 25%.
In addition, this wonder drug reduces the risk of a second heart attack or stroke by 32%, a third cardiovascular event by 31%, and a fourth event by 48%.
Overall, Vascepa significantly reduced incidents of stroke, heart attack, cardiac arrest and heart-related death.
This heart drug is manufactured by the Amarin Corporation, a biopharmaceutical company founded in 1993 and headquartered in Bedminster, New Jersey. The company develops and markets medicines for the treatment of heart disease.
Earlier this week, Amarin Corporation presented new data to the American College of Cardiology annual meeting, They reported that Vascepa reduced the risk of total cardiovascular events by 30% compared to the placebo control group. This is with a follow up of five years.
Extrapolated to a group of 1000 patients, this means a prevention of heart attack or stroke in an additional 159 people!
Vascepa: Outlook
Vascepa is currently approved by the FDA to reduce cholesterol levels. Now, the superb heart data prompts the Amarin corporation the opportunity to push for FDA approval as a heart attack prevention medication.
Currently, the outlook for heart attack patients is grim. For example, half of patients who suffer a heart attack experience another cardiovascular event within one year. Moreover, up to 75% of patients have a heart episode within three years.
Sales of the drug are moving up. Sales were $229 million in 2018 and are expected to hit $350 million in 2019. Amarin intends to start direct-to-consumer promotion and sale of the drug later this year..
All of these positive results have made the company a mergers and acquisitions target of Pfizer Pharmaceuticals. Pfizer is the manufacturer and seller of Lipitor, a popular heart medication.