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Article: Medical Risks, Psychology Fuel Continuing Resistance To tPA.
- Article from:
- BIOWORLD Today
- Article date:
- November 3, 2009
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2009 A Thomson Healthcare Company. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Science Editor
It improves outcomes for patients, but for Genentech Inc.'s Activase itself, the outcome has not been what it could be.
The only FDA-approved drug to treat ischemic stroke, Activase, also known as tissue plasminogen activator, or tPA, has been on the market for almost 10 years. However, despite its de facto monopoly status, it is not used in the majority of cases for which it is approved - only about 20 percent of eligible patients receive the drug.
The original trial upon which FDA approval was based had an enrollment of slightly more than 600 patients; many physicians worried about whether results from that trial would ...