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Novel therapy acts as an antidote to blood thinner

A phase III clinical study demonstrates the safety and efficacy of idarucizumab, a novel therapy that acts as an antidote to the blood thinner dabigatran.

At least 28m prescriptions for blood thinners are filled by pharmacists yearly for the irregular heartbeat of atrial fibrillation, deep vein thrombosis, and other indications, according to the US Department of Health and Human Services. However, on rare occasions, anticoagulants can present risks of accidental bleeding and haemorrhage or can delay emergency surgery.

"Prior to idarucizumab, there was no rapid, reliable, and effective method for reversing dabigatran and other orally administered blood thinners, which otherwise may take at least 12 to 24 hours to clear from the body," says first and corresponding author Dr Charles Pollack, professor of emergency medicine at Sidney Kimmel Medical College of Thomas Jefferson University. "Physicians will now have a potentially life-saving option for treating patients at risk of uncontrolled bleeding or in need of emergency surgery."

The results were from the RE-VERSE AD clinical trial.

The study enrolled 503 patients taking dabigatran in 39 countries between 2014 and 2016, who had an urgent medical need to reverse the blood thinner. Patients were grouped by those who had uncontrolled bleeding or haemorrhage and those who required emergency surgery that could not be safely performed under anticoagulation.

All patients received one dose of five grams of idarucizumab; only nine received a second dose. The researchers checked the blood for various measures of clotting ability before the reversal agent was administered and then at six time points afterwards to assess the therapy's speed and efficacy.

Idarucizumab was able to return patients to normal clotting function within minutes of administration (the first tested time point was between 10-30 minutes after therapy was given). The researchers saw that in patients with uncontrolled bleeding, idarucizumab was able to stop the bleeding within a median of 2.5 hours. Those requiring surgery were able to begin the procedure at a median of 1.6 hours.

The therapy, idarucizumab, from Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals, is made from an antibody segment that functions by binding tightly and specifically to dabigatran and preventing the anticoagulant from working. As such, the therapy is only an effective antidote to dabigatran and not other anticoagulants.

Interim results of this study were published in 2015 and included the analysis of results from 90 patients. Based on those results and consistent findings from pre-clinical studies, the US Food and Drug Administration and the European Medicines Agency both granted approval for use of the drug in emergency settings. The current study confirms and strengthens the interim findings.

"For the first time we have the ability to turn off oral anticoagulation like a light switch," says Pollack. "In the past, we haven't had the ability to do that."

Abstract
Background: Idarucizumab, a monoclonal antibody fragment, was developed to reverse the anticoagulant effect of dabigatran.
Methods: We performed a multicenter, prospective, open-label study to determine whether 5 g of intravenous idarucizumab would be able to reverse the anticoagulant effect of dabigatran in patients who had uncontrolled bleeding (group A) or were about to undergo an urgent procedure (group B). The primary end point was the maximum percentage reversal of the anticoagulant effect of dabigatran within 4 hours after the administration of idarucizumab, on the basis of the diluted thrombin time or ecarin clotting time. Secondary end points included the restoration of hemostasis and safety measures.
Results: A total of 503 patients were enrolled: 301 in group A, and 202 in group B. The median maximum percentage reversal of dabigatran was 100% (95% confidence interval, 100 to 100), on the basis of either the diluted thrombin time or the ecarin clotting time. In group A, 137 patients (45.5%) presented with gastrointestinal bleeding and 98 (32.6%) presented with intracranial hemorrhage; among the patients who could be assessed, the median time to the cessation of bleeding was 2.5 hours. In group B, the median time to the initiation of the intended procedure was 1.6 hours; periprocedural hemostasis was assessed as normal in 93.4% of the patients, mildly abnormal in 5.1%, and moderately abnormal in 1.5%. At 90 days, thrombotic events had occurred in 6.3% of the patients in group A and in 7.4% in group B, and the mortality rate was 18.8% and 18.9%, respectively. There were no serious adverse safety signals.
Conclusions: In emergency situations, idarucizumab rapidly, durably, and safely reversed the anticoagulant effect of dabigatran.

Authors
Charles V Pollack, Paul A Reilly, Joanne van Ryn, John W Eikelboom, Stephan Glund, Richard A Bernstein, Robert Dubiel, Menno V Huisman, Elaine M Hylek, Chak-Wah Kam, Pieter W Kamphuisen, Jörg Kreuzer, Jerrold H Levy, Gordon Royle, Frank W Sellke, Joachim Stangier, Thorsten Steiner, Peter Verhamme, Bushi Wang, Laura Young, Jeffrey I Weitz

[link url="http://hospitals.jefferson.edu/news/2017/07/treatment-rapidly-reverses-the-effect-of-blood-thinner-dabigatran.html"]Thomas Jefferson University material[/link]
[link url="http://www.nejm.org/doi/10.1056/NEJMoa1707278"]New England Journal of Medicine abstract[/link]

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