GSK enhances availability of Coreg

Pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) has announced that Coreg CR will now be available across the US.

The firm states that the beta blocker, which is approved by the Food and Drug Administration for the treatment of three different cardiovascular conditions, can be obtained from pharmacies across the country.

Comprising carvedilol phosphate, Coreg CR can be used by patients with hypertension as well as people who have experienced a myocardial infarction which has led to an underperformance in the pumping of the heart.

“Studies with other older beta blockers show that heart-attack survivors who take less than 75 percent of their beta-blocker regimen in the year after an event are more likely to die than compliant patients,” commented Professor Michael A Weber, head of medicine at a New York college of medicine.

He added that noncompliance with beta-blocker therapy is linked to an increased risk of hospitalisation as a result of heart failure.

A 2001 Capricorn trial of carvedilol found that long-term taking of the drug reduced the chances of patients having another heart attack and cut the risk of death by 23 per cent.

Earlier this month, GSK revealed that its split H5N1 vaccine provides a significant level of cross-immunity protection against a certain strain of the influenza virus.