Both drugs are among a class of medicines called Cox-2 inhibitors, which are meant to treat inflammation without the gastrointestinal bleeding that ibuprofen and aspirin can cause.
Vorapaxar may still provide incremental benefits in specific subgroups of patients, but the termination of the study in certain patients reminds us that it is difficult to achieve enhanced efficacy without also increasing bleeding.
All three drugs belong to a class of anti-inflammatory drugs called Cox-2 inhibitors, which ease inflammation without causing the gastrointestinal bleeding that can accompany older pain medicines like ibuprofen and aspirin.
Consequently, our study challenges current guidelines on the duration of antithrombotic treatment after AVR surgery with biological valves by presenting results suggesting that these patients will gain from an additional 3 months of warfarin treatment in terms of reduced cardiovascular death without risking a significant increase in bleeding events.