A new study presented in Barcelona at the annual meeting of the European Society of Cardiology showed as the combination of a low dose of Xarelto and aspirin cut the risk of heart attacks and strokes.
These results could lead doctors to use Johnson & Johnson and Bayer’s blood thinner Xarelto to prevent heart attacks in some patients, leading to a significant sales boost as well convinced Credit Suisse analyst Divan Vamil to predict that a successful result could increase sales of the drug by $1.5 billion in the U.S. alone.
The results showed significantly reduced the risk of major cardiovascular (CV) events defined as CV death, heart attack or stroke by 24
The drug could potentially be used on 30 million additional patients in its largest national markets, once regulators give their go-ahead for the atherosclerosis indication, Bayer said. That would come on top of a population of roughly 25 million patients in atrial fibrillation.
The pill generated 2.9 billion euros in 2016 sales for Bayer, up 30 percent from a year earlier, while partner J&J, which gets a majority of U.S. revenues, booked sales of $2.3 billion, up 23 percent.
Read further: Forbes, Reuters