As­traZeneca gets a much-need­ed boost for blood thin­ner Bril­in­ta with an OK on stroke

While As­traZeneca’s blood thin­ner Bril­in­ta is far from reach­ing its once-pro­ject­ed $3.5 bil­lion sales peak in car­dio­vas­cu­lar dis­ease, a new ap­proval al­lows the phar­ma gi­ant to tap in­to the acute is­chemic stroke (AIS) mar­ket for a boost.

The FDA gave Bril­in­ta the of­fi­cial OK for use in mild-to-mod­er­ate stroke pa­tients, based on re­sults from the Phase III THALES study. The tri­al en­rolled more than 11,000 pa­tients in 28 coun­tries, and mea­sured the ef­fects of Bril­in­ta and as­pirin com­pared to as­pirin alone in pa­tients with AIS or tran­sient is­chemic at­tack.

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