Ticagrelor (Brilinta) is no better than clopidogrel in patients who have peripheral artery disease, a large new study will show.
On Tuesday morning, AstraZeneca those top line results of the (Examining Use of Ticagrelor in PAD) trial. The full results will be presented in November at the American Heart Association meeting in New Orleans.
EUCLID randomized 13,885 patients with symptomatic peripheral artery disease to ticagrelor or clopidogrel. The company said there was no significant difference between drugs in the primary endpoint of the trial, which was the time to first occurrence of cardiovascular death, MI, or ischemic stroke.
EUCLID was one component of AstraZeneca's Greek-themed PARTHENON series of cardiovascular outcomes trials. Based on results of the PLATO trial, ticagrelor is indicated for the treatment of patients with acute coronary syndrome or MI. Earlier this year, the SOCRATES trial failed to show a benefit for ticagrelor in stroke patients. An ongoing trial, THEMIS, Isaac testing ticagrelor in patients with type 2 diabetes who are at high risk for a cardiovascular event.
According to Reuters, ticagrelor sales in 2015 were $619 million. The EUCLID results have led AstraZeneca executives to reduce their expectations for the drug, which they had hoped would achieve $3.5 billion in annual sales by 2023.
EUCLID was run by the Duke Clinical Research Institute. The principal investigator is , of the University of Colorado Denver.