Verquvo for CHF, aims to enter insurance benefits

First sGC accelerator

Validation with phase 3 VICTORIA

Verquvo, a new drug for heart failure, aims to enter insurance benefits.

 

dksl According to related industries, Bayer Korea has submitted an application for payment of Verquvo, a water-soluble guanylate cyclase (sGC) promoter that promotes the synthesis of intracellular cyclic Guanosine (cGMP).

 

Verquvo was recently approved in December last year as a combination therapy to reduce the risk of death from cardiovascular disease and hospitalization due to heart failure in patients with symptomatic chronic heart failure, whose left ventricular ejection rate, which experienced intravenous diuretic administration, has decreased to less than 45%.

 

Existing heart failure treatments have been a method of blocking harmful effects from the natural neurohormone system activated by myocardial and vascular dysfunction.

 

Verquvo has a new mechanism to improve myocardial and vascular function by promoting the synthesis of intracellular cyclic monophosphate guanosine (cGMP), which regulates heart contraction, vascular tension, and heart remodeling with a water-soluble sGC stimulant.

 

It was approved as the world's first-in-class chronic heart failure treatment as an sGC promoter.

 

Verquvo demonstrated efficacy through phase 3 clinical VICTORIA The VICTORIA study was conducted in 5, 050 patients with high-risk heart failure with NYHA Class (Grades 2-4) and reduced left ventricular ejection rate to less than 45% who were hospitalized due to heart failure or experienced intravenous diuretic administration outpatient.

 

59.7% of the patients who participated in the study were undergoing three-drug therapy, and 41% of severely ill patients with NYHA grades 3 and 4.

 

Patients were administered placebo or up to a target maintenance dose of Verquvo 10 mg in combination with other heart failure treatments.

 

As a result, Verquvo had about 10% lower risk of first hospitalization due to cardiovascular disease death or heart failure during 10.8 months (median value) of follow-up, with an annual Absolute Risk Reduction of 4.2%, meeting the primary evaluation variable.

 

The annual absolute risk reduction rate of hospitalization due to heart failure was 3.2%, and as a result of comprehensive evaluation of hospitalization due to death from all causes or heart failure, Verquvo group showed a 10% risk reduction compared to the placebo group.

 

Heart failure is a disease that appears as a final complication of various cardiovascular diseases such as coronary artery disease and high blood pressure without delivering as much oxygen as necessary to the peripheral organs due to structural or functional abnormalities of the heart.

 

Heart failure is a major cause of hospitalization for patients aged 65 or older, and the prevalence of heart failure in Korea has been steadily increasing over the past decade as the population ages.

 

Heart failure is at high risk of worsening over time, and about 50% of patients diagnosed with heart failure have a low survival rate, with death within five years.