Have you heard of a company called CV Therapuetics & a drug called Ranexa? It's used for Angina.?

Question

How many of you have heard of Ranexa? A company in California named CV Therapeutics makes it. The company trades at about $13.00 right now (ticker symbol: CVTX). The scuttlebutt is that it's going to jump to $20.00 or more after March 27th when a study is released on the safety and effectiveness of Ranexa.

Thank you c_shumac. Your description is very enlightening. Can't wait to what others know.

Answer 1

It may be safe but I have anecdotally failed to see its effectiveness. It is relegated as essentially a last resort after at least five or six medical options, two therapeutic options, and two interventional options have failed. At that point you are dealing with people who have such bad disease that nothing will fix them - or perhaps they are a little bit overly anxious - and heart medication doesn't fix that either.

Additionally the medication's mechanism of action is unknown as stated by the company's literature...sort of a black box drug - which does not soothe medical providers very much, given very little seems to be known about it. If you don't know how it works, how can you possibly predict how it might negatively affect your patient?

Lastly Ranexa has been shown to elongate the QT interval (on an EKG the start and end point of the ventricular cycle) which predisposes an already sick heart to potential life threatening arrhythmia's and is frankly contra-indicated in patients who have low ejection fractions (relative efficiency of heart output characteristically low in patients with bad heart disease).

On the positive side, it does not reduce heart output, change rate or reduce blood pressure.

In sum, there is a small, specific group of patients who might benefit from such a medication, but it will never be a main stream seller like Lipitor or Toprol - unless there is some new dramatic data that shows that it adds years to life or some other major finding - safe and effective are not enough.

I hope this helps. Good luck.

Answer 2

Ranexa is an extremely effective antianginal that has very limited applicability, in that it is indicated for only certain patients. And boy does this sound like a troll to me.