Bayer, J&J In The Frame For Bigger Anti-clotting Market Opportunity

Their clot-prevention drug Xarelto could potentially be used on 30 million additional patients in its largest national markets once regulators give their go ahead for atherosclerosis indication.

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BAYER AND Johnson & Johnson’s blockbuster clot prevention drug Xarelto was shown to cut the risk of potentially deadly strokes and heart attacks in patients with severe atherosclerosis by 24 per cent, raising the prospects of billions more in sales.

Xarelto is already approved for a number of cardiovascular conditions and prevention of strokes caused by atrial fibrillation, a type of irregular heart beat common among the elderly, is the main profit driver.

Now the drug could potentially be used on 30 million additional patients in its largest national markets, once regulators give their go-ahead for the atherosclerosis indication, Bayer said. That would come on top of a population of roughly 25 million patients in atrial fibrillation.

In the irregular heart beat market, Xarelto is head to head with rival pill Eliquis, owned by Pfizer and Bristol-Myers Squibb, and also competes with Boehringer Ingelheim’s Pradaxa, but none of them have been tested in the atherosclerosis setting, mainly because of concerns over side effects.