Researchers at the Imperial College in London are launching an international clinical trial that will test the waters of a once-daily polypill containing aspirin, a statin and two blood pressure lowering medications to reduce cardiovascular (CV) events.

Pfizer today announced plans to shutter eight manufacturing plants and to reduce the workforce by 6,000 at six other sites.

DenverThe intravenous pharmacologic agent vernakalant fared better than amiodarone to make the conversion of recent onset AF to sinus rhythm in patients suffering from atrial fibrillation (AF), according to a late-breaking clinical trial presented at the Heart Rhythm Society (HRS) scientific sessions last Friday.

From 1994 to 2005 in Ontario, Canada, there was a 35 percent decrease in the rate of deaths from coronary heart disease (CHD), with about half of this reduction associated with physiological improvements in traditional CHD risk factors such as total cholesterol levels and systolic blood pressure, according to a study in the May 12 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.

ElexoPharm GmbH, a biotechnology company, has partnered with Merck to develop and market novel aldosterone synthase agents to better treat cardiovascular disease.

Researchers have developed a compound that acts to keep insulin in the body longer, thereby potentially paving the way for a new class of drugs for treating diabetes, according to a study published in the May issue of PLoS ONE.

Heart Rhythm Society (HRS) President Richard L. Page, MD, who is also chair of the department of medicine at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, speaks to Cardiovascular Business News about its sudden cardiac arrest awareness Apples & Oranges campaign.

Pauses for shock delivery in chest compressions are detrimental to the success of resuscitation and may be eliminated with the use of mechanical chest compressors. However, it is important to deliver the shock at just the most optimal time. Researchers found defibrillation efficacy is maximal when electrical shock is delivered in the upstroke phase of mechanical chest compression. The study was published in the June issue of Resuscitation.