Boehringer Ingelheim stroke drug receives expanded treatment window

Boehringer Ingelheim has been granted an expanded treatment window for Actilyse, its clot-busting therapy option for ischaemic stroke patients, in the UK.

Data from the recent European Cooperative Acute Stroke Study has been used to demonstrate the benefits of allowing Actilyse to be used by patients up to 4.5 hours after their symptoms begin.

This represents an extension to the current three-hour treatment window and will make the drug available to two percent more stroke sufferers.

Actilyse first became available in 1987, with the new decision meaning that clinicians will be able to use the product to more easily treat a condition which remains one of the top three causes of death in the UK.

Dr Peter Coleman, deputy director of research at the Stroke Association, said: "When a stroke strikes time is key – the quicker you act the more brain can be saved thanks to treatments like thrombolysis."

Last month, Boehringer Ingelheim announced an extended partnership with life science company Ablynx, pertaining to the development of new nanobody-based therapies.