As per the findings of the double-blind phase II SEPIA-ACS1/ TIMI-42 study, Otamixaban - an experimental anti-clotting drug manufactured by the French pharmaceutical company Sanofi-Aventis - can better prevent cardiac complications as well as deaths in heart patients having suffered mild attacks and severe chest pain, vis-à-vis standard treatment.

The study, presented at the Annual European Society of Cardiology meeting in Barcelona, Spain and published online in The Lancet, said that treatment with Otamixaban brought about a fall of between 27 percent and 42 percent, in the complications of invasive management of acute coronary syndromes (ACS).

After it observation of 3241 randomly-selected patients from 36 countries, the study arrived at the conclusion that the anti-Xa intravenous anticoagulant Otamixaban significantly lowered the composite primary endpoint of death, myocardial infarction, urgent revascularization or rescue in ACS patients, in comparison to the standard UFH/eptifibatide combination treatment.

Otamixaban is currently in phase IIb clinical development phase, and the trials are funded by Sanofi.

Weighing Otamixaban against the widely-used drug heparin, Marc Sabatine - the lead researcher and a cardiologist at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston - remarked: "There is intense interest in finding a more effective, reliable and safe replacement for heparin. With otamixaban, we can use a weight-based dose and patients fall right into the target range. It's much more convenient to give."