How much of a problem is chronic angina? Is it an unmet medical need? Arent there a lot of treatments avail?

Question

Just trying to understand how big of a problem this is and the potential for Ranexa. It seems to me there are a lot of options available for people with this problem

Answer 1

You are right. There are a lot of options - at least quite a few. Renexa is a last resort for people who have inoperable heart disease or have "non-obstructive" angina, aka "small vessel disease" (chest pain that behaves like angina but the patient has no critical blockages in their arteries) or Prinzmetal's angina.

There are the occasional patients who have been trialled on everything else - it either didn't work, the patient didn't tolerate it or both. The problem with Ranexa is that it seems like a black box medication. No one seems to have any idea WHY it works. This is a substantial hindrance to its usage because if you don't know why it works - it seems like you have no idea what it might interact with or what untoward effects it may exhibit - thereby potentially being risky for your patient.