Plavix Did Not Beat Aspirin in Heart Study

A study released this week showed Sanofi-Aventis’ Plavix had no benefit over aspirin in preventing heart attack and stroke.

The CHARISMA study — the results of which were released Monday at the American College of Cardiology meeting in Atlanta — showed that the combination of Plavix (clopidogrel) and aspirin did not demonstrate a statistically significant reduction in the risk of heart attack, stroke or cardiovascular death in patients with multiple risk factors but no clearly established vascular disease, compared to placebo and aspirin, researchers said.

In this subgroup — which made up about 20 percent of the study population — there was an excess in cardiovascular mortality and non-statistically significant increase in bleeding in patients given clopidogrel and aspirin.

However, in the study patients with established atherothrombotic disease — who accounted for 80 percent of the study population — the combination of clopidogrel and aspirin reduced by 12.5 percent the relative risk of a recurrent heart attack and stroke, as well as the risk of cardiovascular death.

The study was funded by maker Sanofi-Aventis and Bristol-Myers Squibb, which markets the drug in the United States. Plavix is the second-largest-selling cholesterol drug worldwide behind Pfizer’s Lipitor, with annual sales of about $6.3 billion.