The greatest benefit: Omecamtiv mecarbil improves outcomes the most for patients with severe heart failure
Omecamtiv mecarbil is associated with significant cardiovascular benefits for heart failure patients with severely reduced ejection fraction, according to new data presented at ACC.21, the American College of Cardiology’s 70th annual scientific session.
The study’s authors examined data from the GALACTIC-HF trial, which enrolled more than 8,000 patients with symptomatic HFrEF. All patients had an ejection fraction of 35% or less.
Overall, the cardiac myosin activator provided the clearest cardiovascular benefits for patients with an ejection fraction of 30% or lower. For patients presenting with an ejection fraction higher than approximately 30%, however, additional analyses may be necessary to better understand who can benefit the most from treatment.
“This is a drug that will potentially help the very group of patients that are most difficult to care for,” lead author John R. Teerlink, MD, a cardiologist at the University of California, San Francisco, said in a statement. “While the results from GALACTIC-HF show omecamtiv mecarbil brought improvements overall, these new findings point to a group of patients with more severe heart failure in whom there is even greater benefit.”
The team also found that omecamtiv mecarbil was not associated with any negative effects on a patient’s blood pressure, heart rate, potassium levels or renal function. In addition, no increase in cardiac ischemic or ventricular arrhythmic events was detected.
“The good news is omecamtiv mecarbil can be added on to a patient’s treatment regimen at any time, because it doesn’t interact with any of the commonly used heart failure therapies in terms of adverse effects,” Teerlink said.
Looking ahead, Teerlink et al. noted that additional research should examine if any other patient characteristics other than ejection fraction can be used to identify who would benefit the most from treatment with omecamtiv mecarbil.
The researchers also published its full findings in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology. Read their full analysis here.
Additional coverage from ACC.21 is available here.
Michael has more than 18 years of experience as a professional writer and editor. He has written at length about cardiology, radiology, artificial intelligence and other key healthcare topics.