Sacubitril - Valsartan, a "New Threshold of Hope" or Hype for Heart Failure?

Summer must be over, because the next new blockbuster drug appears to be here.  At the end of August, the media heralded the results of a study of a new product for congestive heart failure (CHF) from Novartis.Novartis' New "Game Changer" The New York Times article was fairly restrained, simply saying ithas shown a striking efficacy in prolonging the lives of people with heart failureThe Reuters article's headline saidNew Novartis drug may upend heart failure treatmentIn Forbes, Matthew Herper called it aGame ChangerThe accompanying editorial in the New England Journal of Medicine (1) suggested the drugmay well represent a new threshold of hope for patients with heart failure On the heels of the debate about the high price of Sovaldi, Gilead's drug similarly touted as a game changer for the also common disease, hepatitis C (look here), almost immediately the concerns about cost followed.  Another Reuters article quoted the past president of the European Society of Cardiology,We are entering a new era of treatment and, of course, it will cost a lot of money, which is a problemThis blog was late to the party for Sovaldi, and did not get to examine the evidence used to support its ostensibly wondrous properties until a while after it was published, and after the drug was approved.  Therefore, I thought we should examine the new evidence about Novartis' new drug now, before the drug is reviewed for marketing approval.Congestive Heart FailureFirst, let me give a ver...
Source: Health Care Renewal - Category: Health Management Tags: CHF clinical trials evidence-based medicine manipulating clinical research Novartis sacubitril Source Type: blogs