Drug Shows Promise in Reducing High Failure Rate of Angioplasties

A medicine abandoned by its maker two years ago when it was displaced by more powerful drugs appears to be the first to substantially reduce the high failure rate of angioplasty. About 500,000 Americans undergo angioplasty each year to unclog plugged heart arteries. In about 20% of cases, though, the procedure has to be repeated within a few months because the blood vessels fill up again.

In today’s New England Journal of Medicine, Canadian doctors report that the drug probucol cuts the need for repeat angioplasties in half. Dr. Gilles Cote of the Montreal Heart Institute estimates that in the United States alone, routine use of probucol could save $700 million annually by eliminating the need for repeat angioplasties, which typically cost about $16,000 apiece.