Duke Researchers investigate risks and benefits of heart-failure drug

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Last Sunday, researchers from Duke University’s Clinical Research Institute unveiled findings regarding potentially deadly side-effects in the heart-failure drug Natrecor, according to a Wall Street Journal article.

Previously, the drug had brought about concern that the drug, approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration in 2001, may actually increase the risk of death for patients. As a result, Johnson and Johnson, the producer of the drug, convened a panel which advised a large clinical trial to determine the risks associated with the drug.

While the researchers found no strong evidence of increased risk of death among patients, the study was unable to prove any positive effect of Natrecor at a statistically significant level, reported the Wall Street Journal.

Dr. Robert Califf, the Vice Chancellor of Clinical Research and Director of the Duke Translational Medicine Institute who chaired the study, told the WSJ that the drug “has a very mild effect on [shortness of breath] and it’s perfectly safe.”

Califf added that, “both rapid uptake [in the marketplace] of the drug, and its decline, were for the wrong reasons.”