For Immediate Release

Contact: Carolyn Vivaldi
Phone Number:  (215) 596-8855
Date: 11/29/05

Assessment of Novel Drug for Treating Acute Heart Failure

USP professor and colleague provide evaluation of current studies on levosimendan

Health professionals and others concerned about the toll heart failure is taking on our society now have access to an article evaluating the results of studies of the new calcium sensitizer levosimendan.

Recently published in Annals of Pharmacotherapy, the article was authored by Grace Earl, PharmD, Department of Pharmacy Practice and Administration at University of the Sciences in Philadelphia (USP), and James Fitzpatrick, MD, from the Advanced Heart Failure/Transplant Center at Temple University. The original review article was published online, October 11, 2005, at www.theannals.com and then in print in the journal’s November 2005 issue.

Titled "Levosimendan: a novel inotropic agent for the treatment of acute decompensated heart failure,” the article examines the clinical trials and pharmacokinetic studies evaluating the safety and efficacy of levosimendan. This drug is in Phase III clinical trials and will likely be submitted for approval to the FDA in the near future. It may be a viable alternative to intravenous drugs such as dobutamine and milrinone that are used to treat patients hospitalized for acute heart failure.

Patients with decompensated heart failure or patients awaiting heart transplantation may require intravenous drugs to increase cardiac output and relieve pulmonary congestion. “Levosimendan is effective and appears to have a lower frequency of adverse outcomes,” says Dr. Earl, who has been a professor at USP for five years. “My colleague and I were interested in evaluating the available research on levosimendan because it has a unique mechanism of action. Levosimendan differs from all other available intravenous drugs in its ability to enhance the pumping action of the heart.”

An abstract of the article is available for free online at www.theannals.com. The full text of the article can be purchased using a link from the abstract page. It is also available via subscription.

University of the Sciences in Philadelphia is a private, coeducational institution founded in 1821 as Philadelphia College of Pharmacy, the first college of pharmacy in North America. Comprising four colleges across a broad range of majors, USP specializes in educating students for rewarding careers through its undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral degree programs in the health and related sciences.

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