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There is a new weapon in the fight against strokes.
A new drug called Pradaxa will help people suffering from atrial fibrillation avoid strokes.
atrial fibrilation is a heart disease that typically affects adults over the age of 70.
Testing for the new drug was recently completed at Northwestern Regional Hospital in Petoskey.
Dr. Peter Levanovich is with Michigan Heart and Vascular Specialists. He says a new stroke prevention drug was needed because the current treatment, Coumadin, is problematic.
"We were able to show that Coumadin was superior to aspirin in preventing strokes from this heart disease. After proving Coumadin was effective it immediatly became apparent that it was very hard to manage and had a high association with dangerous side-effects and complications" said Levanovich.
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved Pradaxa on October 19, 2010. The drug was approved on the basis of results from a RE-LY clinical trial. There were over 18,000 subjects in the trial.
Dr. Peter Levanovich is with Michigan Heart and Vascular. He says the drug is good, but expensive. According to theheart.org the price of the drug is $3 per pill
"I've been using it in appropriate patients for approximately two weeks now. It is prescription medicine and like all other new medications on the market it's relatively expensive as the company figures out how to work with various companies to get the medication covered" said Levanovich.
Doctors said Praxada has a 34 percent greater reduction in stroke than the previous medication.
