Xarelto lowers CV risk, ups major bleeds in artery disease

The Janssen Research & Development LLC unit of Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ) released full data from the Phase III COMPASS trial showing that twice-daily 2.5 mg oral Xarelto rivaroxaban plus once-daily 100 mg aspirin reduced the proportion of coronary and/or peripheral artery disease (CAD/PAD) patients with cardiovascular death, heart attack or stroke by 24% vs. aspirin alone (4.1% vs. 5.4%, HR=0.76, p<0.001). Janssen and partner Bayer AG (Xetra:BAYN) stopped the trial early in February after the drug met that primary endpoint.

The complete COMPASS data were presented at the European Society of Cardiology meeting in Barcelona and published in The New England Journal of Medicine.
For the individual components of the composite primary endpoint, 2.5 mg Xarelto plus aspirin reduced the risk of any stroke by 42% (HR=0.58, p<0.001), CV death by 22% (HR=0.78, p=0.02) and heart attack by 14% (HR=0.86, p=0.14) vs. aspirin alone. ...