AstraZeneca Announce Brilinta’s Phase III THEMIS trial met primary endpoint in 
patients with established coronary artery disease and type-2 diabetes

The Phase III THEMIS trial met its primary endpoint and demonstrated that Brilinta (ticagrelor), taken in conjunction with aspirin, showed a statistically-significant reduction in a composite of major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE) compared to aspirin alone.

THEMIS was conducted in over 19,000 patients with coronary artery disease (CAD) and type-2 diabetes (T2D) with no prior heart attack (myocardial infarction, MI) or stroke. Preliminary safety results were consistent with the known profile of Brilinta. A full evaluation of the THEMIS data will be presented at a forthcoming medical meeting.

Elisabeth Björk, Senior Vice President, Head of late Cardiovascular, Renal and Metabolism, R&D BioPharmaceuticals, said: “Approaches to help reduce cardiovascular morbidity further in patients with coronary artery disease and type-2 diabetes are urgently needed. The positive result from the THEMIS trial may offer a potential benefit for this high-risk patient population.”

Deepak L. Bhatt, MD, MPH, THEMIS co-Chair and Executive Director of Interventional Cardiovascular Programs at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and a Professor at Harvard Medical School said: “The THEMIS trial is the largest randomised trial of patients with type-2 diabetes performed to date and was designed to evaluate whether more-intense antiplatelet therapy is a promising approach. The results could help us refine our understanding of the role of dual antiplatelet therapy in patients across the atherothrombotic spectrum.”

Gabriel Steg, MD, THEMIS co-Chair and Professor at Université Paris-Diderot, Paris and Professor at the National Heart and Lung Institute, Imperial College, London said: “Patients who have both stable coronary artery disease and diabetes are a sizeable group which remains at particularly high risk of major adverse cardiac events. The optimal long-term antiplatelet therapy in that group is not fully established. We look forward to presenting the full results from the THEMIS trial later this year.”

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