AstraZeneca: BRILIQUE receives Class I recommendation from ESC

AstraZeneca today announced BRILIQUE (ticagrelor), a new oral antiplatelet medicine, received a Class I recommendation (level of evidence B) from the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) in the revised "Guidelines for Management of Acute Coronary Syndromes (ACS) in patients presenting without persistent ST-segment elevation."

In these 2011 guidelines, ticagrelor is recommended for all non-ST elevation ACS patients at moderate-to-high risk of ischaemic events, regardless of initial treatment strategy and including those pre-treated with clopidogrel (which should be discontinued when ticagrelor is commenced) (Class 1, level of evidence B). In addition, the guidelines recommend ticagrelor be considered for initiation or resumption following coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) surgery as soon as it is considered safe (Class IIa, level of evidence B).

"The inclusion of ticagrelor in the new NSTE-ACS ESC guidelines is another important step toward improving ACS patient care in the EU," said Professor Lars Wallentin, co-primary investigator of the PLATO study and Professor of Cardiology and Research Director at the Uppsala University, Sweden.

The ESC guidelines as well as marketing authorisation in the EU for ticagrelor were based on a review of the ticagrelor clinical programme, including results from PLATO (A Study of PLATelet Inhibition and Patient Outcomes), which established the superiority of ticagrelor over clopidogrel, and showed that treating 54 ACS patients with ticagrelor instead of clopidogrel for one year prevented one atherothrombotic event and treating 91 patients prevented one cardiovascular (CV) death, with no increase in overall major/fatal bleeding over the course of one year of treatment (11.6% for ticagrelor versus 11.2% for clopidogrel).

On 6 December 2010, the European Commission granted marketing authorisation to ticagrelor, co-administered with acetylsalicylic acid (ASA) (maintenance dose 75-150mg daily), for the prevention of atherothrombotic events in adult patients with ACS (unstable angina, NSTEMI, or STEMI), including patients managed medically and those who are managed with percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) or CABG. This decision followed advance incorporation of the medicine into ESC's 2010 Guidelines for Myocardial Revascularisation in August.