AZN reports Brilinta v. Plavix results

AstraZeneca plc (LSE:AZN; NYSE:AZN) said top-line data from the international Phase III PLATO trial in 18,624 acute coronary syndrome (ACS) patients showed that Brilinta ticagrelor ( AZD6140) met the primary endpoint of significantly increasing the time to a recurrent cardiovascular event vs. Plavix clopidogrel. In the double-blind study, patients received twice-daily 90 mg oral Brilinta or once-daily 75 mg oral Plavix from Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. (NYSE:BMY) and sanofi-aventis Group (Euronext:SAN; NYSE:SNY).

AstraZeneca said Brilinta's safety profile was in line with the safety data observed in Phase II trials. In the Phase IIb DISPERSE2 study, Brilinta previously showed no significant difference in the rates of major or total bleeding events vs. Plavix. Brilinta is a reversible adenosine diphosphate (ADP) receptor antagonist, while Plavix is an ADP receptor antagonist. ...