NitroMed's BiDil improves survival of African-American heart patients

By Lisa Kerner

Erie, Pa., March 13 - NitroMed, Inc. said data from a continuing analysis of patients treated with BiDil (isosorbide dinitrate/hydralazine hydrochloride) in the African American Heart Failure Trial (A-HeFT) suggest that BiDil decreases systolic blood pressure in black heart failure patients with higher baseline systolic blood pressure (>126 mmHg), but not in those with lower baseline systolic blood pressure (<=126 mmHg).

The beneficial effects of BiDil on clinical outcomes in A-HeFT were shown to be independent of baseline systolic blood pressure, according to a company news release.

The results were presented in Atlanta at the 55th Annual Scientific Session of the American College of Cardiology.

NitroMed said the initial results from the A-HeFT trial indicate that BiDil improved survival, decreased time to first hospitalization for heart failure and improved functional status in self-identified black patients.

BiDil was also associated with a significant decrease in blood pressure across all patients treated with BiDil in the trial, the release stated.

"BiDil is a vasodilator, which is often perceived to further reduce blood pressure in patients with existing low systolic blood pressure," the study's lead author Dr. Inder S. Anand said in the release.

"In fact, this data showed that BiDil did not cause a decrease in systolic blood pressure in A-HeFT patients with low blood pressure, who are at the highest risk of death from heart failure."

BiDil, approved in June 2005 by the Food and Drug Administration, is indicated for the treatment of heart failure as an adjunct to current standard therapy in self-identified black patients.

Heart failure, or end-stage cardiovascular disease, affects approximately 5 million Americans, including an estimated 750,000 African Americans. According to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, African Americans between the ages of 45 and 64 are 2.5 times more likely to die from heart failure than Caucasians in the same age range.

NitroMed, based in Lexington, Mass., is a research-based emerging pharmaceutical company.

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