The Food and Drug Administration on Monday approved Bayer’s drug to reduce recurrence of stroke, making available the first in a novel class of medications that hold the promise of preventing blood clots more safely.
Many blood thinners aren’t used in this setting due to the increased risk of bleeding. But Bayer’s drug, which will be sold under the brand name Sunharbo, inhibits a protein called XIa, utilizing a mechanism that’s thought to stop the formation of bad clots without increasing the risk of bleeding.
In a Phase 3 trial that enrolled people who had already had a stroke and were taking common stroke treatments, 8.4% of participants who took placebo experienced a secondary stroke, while 6.2% of patients who took Sunharbo experienced one, translating into a 26% risk reduction. Another way to look at the data is that in one year, 53 patients need to be treated for one recurrent stroke to be prevented.
