Ahead of the Bell: Abbott heart clip shows promise

NEW YORK

New data shows that a clip that Abbott Laboratories makes to fix leaky heart valves was nearly as effective as open-heart surgery.

The MitraClip could help people avoid having to undergo riskier open-heart surgery to repair or replace valves, according to results of a study presented Sunday at an American College of Cardiology conference.

The study, sponsored by developer Evalve Inc., found that six times more people who had surgery suffered complications during the next month than those who got the device. Deaths, strokes and blood transfusions were also less common when the clip was used.

Abbott Laboratories, based in North Chicago, Ill., bought the MitraClip last year from Evalve. It is already sold in Europe.

Not all news coming out of the meeting Sunday was positive for Abbott. Key results from a landmark three-part federal study showed that taking drugs to drive blood pressure and blood-fats lower than current targets did not prevent heart problems, and in some cases caused harmful side effects.

A drug made by Abbott -- TriCor, which lowers blood fats called trigylcerides while boosting "good" cholesterol -- was used in the blood-fat segment of the study.

Researchers led by Columbia University's Dr. Henry Ginsburg gave half of the more than 5,500 diabetics they recruited TriCor in addition to a cholesterol-lowering pill; the rest got dummy pills. Nearly five years later, the groups had similar rates of heart attacks and strokes, although people with very high blood fats seemed to benefit from TriCor.

There also were signs of a gender difference -- TriCor seemed to help men but appeared to possibly harm women, by raising the chance they would suffer a heart problem compared to women taking dummy pills.

An Abbott vice president, Dr. Eugene Sun, said the results of the fat-lowering study were "not surprising given that two-thirds of patients in the trial would not be treated with fibrates under current guidelines."