Breakthrough drug could dramatically reduce heart disease

A combination of heart drugs could help save 10,000 lives each year in the UK, say scientists.

The treatment, costing £1 per day is especially significant for Northern Ireland, which has some 7,000 people dying from heart disease each year in Northern Ireland, one of the worst records of coronary heart disease in the western world.

A study at the Royal Brompton Hospital in London, has suggested one in five heart attacks, strokes or deaths from heart disease could be prevented by using the new drug.

They found the drug Clopidogrel (Plavix) had excellent results when teamed with the standard therapy of aspirin.

Speaking about the results, doctors involved in the trials have described the new drug combination as the biggest step forward in the treatment of coronary heart disease for 20 years.

A quarter of a million people in the UK die each year from heart disease, which accounts for 40 per cent of all UK deaths and costs the UK economy £10 billion a year.

But doctors say the new treatment of one Clopidogrel and one aspirin tablet could mean an extra lease of life for the daily cost of just £1 a day.

Plavix, which was co-developed by Sanofi-Synthelabo and Bristol-Myers Squibb, has been available in the UK since 1998 for patients with coronary heart disease.

But the study showed patients suffering from unstable angina or a suspected heart attack recovered best when the drug was combined with aspirin.

Scientists from the Clinical Trials and Evaluation Unit at the Royal Brompton and Harefield Trust teamed up with colleagues from McMaster University, Canada to study 12,000 patients from 28 countries. (AMcE)