ESC/WCC: Lovenox (enoxaparin) Wins Edge Over Unfractionated Heparin

BARCELONA, Spain, Sept. 4 -- Lovenox (enoxaparin) may be a better choice than unfractionated heparin for preventing thrombus in myocardial infarction patients who undergo percutaneous coronary interventions following initial fibrinolytic therapy.

So showed the latest findings from the TIMI investigators, reported today at the European Society of Cardiology/World Cardiology Congress meeting here.

Patients who received Lovenox had a 10.7% rate of recurrent myocardial infarction or death at 30 days compared with a 13.8% event rate among patients treated with standard weight-based unfractionated heparin, said C. Michael Gibson, M.D., of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston.

That reflects a 23% reduction in relative risk (P

There were also significantly fewer strokes reported for patients treated with Lovenox-a 30-day stroke rate of 0.3% versus 0.9% for a relative risk reduction of 30% (P=0.006).

Importantly, Dr. Gibson said, "there was no significant difference in the bleeding rate-including the intracranial hemorrhage rate-between the treatment arms."

Asked about the difference in the length of the drug regimens -- Lovenox was administered for significantly longer than unfractionated heparin -- Dr. Gibson said the data still support the finding that Lovenox was more protective.

Raymond Gibbons, M.D., a professor of cardiology at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., and president of the American Heart Association, said the difference in duration of treatment may be significant.

As a result, Dr. Gibbons said the trial was really a comparison of two antithrombotic regimens rather than a true drug comparison.

The study was funded by Sanofi-Aventis, which markets Lovenox.