FDA Approves Drug That Quickly Dissolves Clots After Heart Attack

The Food and Drug Administration on Tuesday approved a new drug that quickly dissolves blood clots to prevent permanent damage following a heart attack.

The drug, called anistreplase, is the third clot-dissolving drug to be approved. But its advantage is that it can be administered in five minutes or less while the other two must be administered continuously for one to three hours, according to SmithKline Beecham, which will market the drug as Eminase.

Although clot-dissolving drugs can open blocked arteries and limit damage from heart attacks, they are used in only 20% or so of the estimated 400,000 to 600,000 patients who could benefit from treatment each year, according to the Department of Health and Human Services.

More than 300,000 of the 1.5 million people who suffer heart attacks each year die before getting to the hospital and an additional 300,000 get there too late for treatment with clot-dissolving drugs, the department said in announcing the FDA action.

“Ease and convenience of administration of anistreplase hopefully will lead to greater use of this life-saving thrombolytic therapy even in emergency rooms and small hospitals not equipped with sophisticated coronary care facilities,” HHS Secretary Louis W. Sullivan said.

A blood clot blocking one of the arteries to the heart is the most common cause of heart attacks. The clot prevents blood from carrying oxygen to the heart muscle.