No benefit in taking pexelizumab to reduce heart attack inflammation

Reported by Susan Aldridge, PhD, medical journalist

Pexelizumab has not followed up its early promise in reducing death after a certain type of heart attack.
Acute ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) is a specific type of heart attack which has a characteristic electrocardiogram. It is a major public health issue in developed countries and, increasingly, in less developed countries too. Angioplasty - which restores the blood supply to the heart - can be a successful treatment for STEMI, but there is a need for approaches to make angioplasty more successful. Researchers at the University of Alberta, Canada, now report upon the outcomes of a big trial of one new approach, which involves treatment with the drug pexelizumab. The work was done in nearly 300 hospitals in countries around the world.

A group of 2,885 patients undergoing angioplasty for STEMI received placebo while another 2,860 received pexelizumab. The aim was to protect the heart from the adverse effects of inflammation both before and immediately after the angioplasty procedure. However, there was no obvious difference between the two groups in terms of mortality, shock or heart failure both at 30 days and at day 90. This contrasts with the promise that pexelizumab showed in earlier trials. It may be that there is a sub-set of STEMI patients who can benefit from pexelizumab and it is certainly worthwhile exploring other approaches to reducing inflammation damage after a heart attack.

Source
Journal of the American Medical Association 3rd January 2007 Volume 297 pages 43-51