CBS News covers new Novartis drug to address heart failure

CBS Nightly News on Saturday, August 30, 2014 led off with a story on the Novartis drug LCZ696 (a combination of valsartan ( Diovan ) and sacubitril to treat heart failure), which story, including comments by Jon LaPook, was quite favorable.

There was no mention of Diovan having gone off patent.

Reuters' coverage of the story ( New Novartis drug may upend heart failure treatment ) included:


The experimental treatment, known at LCZ696, cut the risk of both cardiovascular death and admissions to hospital by a fifth, boosting hopes for a product seen as a multibillion-dollar seller - thanks, in part, to its expected premium price.

“Given the survival advantage of LCZ696 over currently available drugs, once this drug becomes available, it would be difficult to understand why physicians would continue to use traditional (drugs) ... for the treatment of heart failure," said Milton Packer of the University of Texas.

Packer was joint-principal investigator on the study with John McMurray of the University of Glasgow, who called the result "astonishing".



The magnitude of the benefit was only disclosed on Saturday, August 30 at the annual meeting of the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) in Barcelona.

See the earlier IPBiz post The PARADIGM-HF study; a new use for valsartan?