A blood-thinning drug is set to bring new hope to helping people aged 50 and over who have had a history of suffering heart attacks. UK pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca has successfully trialled its blood-thinning drug ticagrelor, which has proved to cut the risk of people, 50 and over, from having heart attacks who have suffered them in the past.

AstraZeneca said a trial of ticagrelor, which is trade-named Brilinta and can thin the blood, demonstrated “statistically significant reduction in major cardiovascular thrombotic events” in patients with a history of heart attacks.

The large-scale study trial called PEGASUS-TIMI 54 involved over 21,000 patients. The study involved investigated two different doses of ticagrelor in patients aged 50 and older, who had experienced a heart attack one to three years prior to the study’s start.

AstraZeneca said the PEGASUS study was designed to better understand the management of patients more than 12 months after their heart attack, who remain at high risk from major thrombotic events. The PEGASUS study is also part of PARTHENON, AstraZeneca’s largest ever cardiovascular outcomes programme. It involves nearly 80,000 patients at high risk of cardiovascular events, such as heart attacks and strokes.

Elisabeth Björk, vice president and head of cardiovascular and metabolic diseases of global medicines development at AstraZeneca, said the results builds on understanding the benefits of the drug ticagrelor for people with heart conditions.

She said: “We are very pleased with the top line results of the PEGASUS-TIMI 54 study, the second positive major outcomes study in the PARTHENON programme. The results build on existing understanding of the benefits of Brilliant for patients with acute coronary syndrome and offer important clinical insights into its potential role for the longer term prevention of cardiovascular events.”

AstraZeneca said the complete results from the PEGASUS study will be submitted to a scientific meeting later this year.