Boehringer Ingelheim highlights success of Pradaxa

Boehringer Ingelheim has highlighted the success of Pradaxa, its stroke prevention treatment for atrial fibrillation (AF) patients, since its introduction last year.

The dabigatran etexilate therapy was approved in territories such as the US, Canada and Japan around ten months ago and has since been utilised among more than 350,000 patients.

It is the first novel oral anticoagulant to be approved for this specification since the current standard of care warfarin more than 55 years ago, with data from clinical trials having demonstrated the drug's effectiveness.

Currently, Boehringer Ingelheim is collecting further data on the efficacy and safety of the treatment in Re-volution, a study programme involving more than 40,000 patients.

Professor Klaus Dugi, corporate senior vice-president for medicine at Boehringer Ingelheim, said: "We are proud that dabigatran etexilate, a drug from our own research and development, is being used worldwide to help protect patients from the potentially devastating effects of an AF-related stroke."

Last week, the company announced that Trajenta, a new therapy for diabetes developed alongside Lilly, has been approved for use in Europe.