Bayer Heart Failure Drug Lowered Death Totals in Mid-Stage Trial

Bayer heart failure drug will enter into final-stage testing later this year after the drug dramatically cut the number of deaths in its mid-stage trial.

The drug, finerenone, is an improved version of mineralocorticoid receptor antagonists (MRAs), which is a class of heart drugs. MRAs, such as spironolactone and eplerenone (Pfizer's Inspra) can be troublesome because they can lead to high levels of potassium in the blood, which can then cause irregular heart beat and possibly cardiac arrest. These older heart drugs have also been tied to causing kidney problems.

"If you can eliminate hyperkalaemia (high potassium) that would be a huge benefit to patients," Mary Norine Walsh, vice president of the American College of Cardiology, commented. Walsh was not involved in the trial

Bayer's drug reportedly managed to avoid these health complications. The phase II trial data, which was presented in London, concluded that finerenone cut deaths and reduced hospital admissions within the first 90 days of treatment. The patients on finerenone were compared to a control group on eplerenone.

The team reported that the largest risk reduction was seen in patients who started off with 10 mg of the drug per day. These patient' risks fell by 44 percent.

"We didn't expect to see these clearly better results already in Phase II," said Frank Misselwitz, head of the therapeutic area cardiovascular and coagulation at Bayer.

"We were somewhat surprised by this striking reduction in CV (cardiovascular) events," Gerasimos Filippatos, the study's principal investigator, said during the European Society of Cardiology's annual meeting.

The next phase of the trial will involve at least 3,600 patients suffering from heart failure, diabetes and/or kidney disease.

Analysts believe that if the drug continues to be highly successful, it could reach the market in 2020 or 2021.