Entresto (sacubitril/valsartan) given Class I recommendation for heart failure treatment- Novartis

Entresto (sacubitril/valsartan), from Novartis, has been given a Class I recommendation for treating heart failure. This is the strongest endorsement, in updated clinical practice guidelines simultaneously released by the American College of Cardiology (ACC), the American Heart Association (AHA) and the Heart Failure Society of America (HFSA) in the US, and the European Society of Cardiology in the EU.

In the US Entresto is now a standard therapy for heart failure with reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF) as an alternative to an ACE inhibitor or an angiotensin II receptor blocker, given together with a beta blocker and an aldosterone antagonist. In addition, the guidelines call for doctors to switch HFrEF patients with mild to moderate symptoms from ACEs or ARBs to Entresto. In the EU, the ESC HF guidelines recommend doctors switch HFrEF patients meeting the PARADIGM-HF criteria to Entresto from an ACE or ARB. Both guideline committees considered evidence from PARADIGM-HF, the largest heart failure trial ever, which showed Entresto significantly reduced deaths from cardiovascular causes and heart failure hospitalizations in patients with HFrEF.