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Large RCT has good news and bad news for nesiritide (Natrecor). |
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BY RON WINSLOW CHICAGO—A major study of a once-popular heart-failure drug put to rest worries that the medicine heightens risk of death for patients. But that good news for doctors, patients and the drug's maker, Johnson & Johnson, came with a downside: The study found that the drug, nesiritide, provides little benefit. The drug, an intravenous treatment marketed under the brand name Natrecor, was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in 2001 for patients hospitalized with a devastating condition called acute decompensating heart failure. The condition is marked by severe shortness of breath and poor heart function and is a cause ... |