The usage of the drug, Ivabradine as a complementary treatment is said to lessen deaths to a quarter, a study confirms. This drug, with brand name Procoralan is said to lower or slowdown the rate of heart beat and is at present being used for the treatment of angina. The most attractive fact about the drug is that it costs less than £1.50 a day to prescribe.

A study involving Six Irish centers has established that the drug, Ivabradine, made in Wicklow is likely to save lives of thousands of people who die of heart failure every year and simultaneously minimize hospital admissions.

The result of the study, which is being termed as ‘a significant breakthrough’ was offered at the European Society of Cardiology annual meeting in Stockholm.

This study involved around 6,500 patients from 37 countries with a heart beat rate of at least 70 beats per minute and the findings proved that the drug could be used to treat thousands of patients with restrained to severe heart failure.

"We now know that more lives can be saved and improved simply by adding Ivabradine to their current treatment in order to take some of the strain off the heart”, said Prof. Cowie, a consultant cardiologist at the Royal Brompton Hospital in London.