Xarelto reduces hospital stays: Study

Hospital stays were shorter for patients treated with Xarelto (rivaroxaban) in a new study, compared to those receiving standard anticoagulants.

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Presented by manufacturer Janssen Pharmaceuticals and development partner Bayer Healthcare at the recent American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting and simultaneously published in Lancet Hematology, this is the first prospective study to confirm the benefit of a non-vitamin K antagonist oral anticoagulant (NOAC) for treating deep vein thrombosis (DVT) in routine clinical practice.

The new Xalia study included approximately 5,000 patients. The rates of major bleeding and recurrent blood clots for Xarelto were generally consistent with those observed in the phase 3 EINSTEIN-DVT study, which was used by regulatory authorities worldwide to approve Xarelto.

Related:  DVT patients taking rivaroxaban had fewer hospital admissions, costs, similar subsequent hospital visits vs. standard of care

"On average, every 37 seconds someone in the Western world dies from a venous blood clot, so it is important we understand the effectiveness and safety of available treatment options for these potentially life-threatening blood clots," said Alexander G. G. Turpie, professor at McMaster University and Hamilton Health Sciences in Hamilton, Ontario and the study’s principal investigator. "The real-world insights from XALIA confirm the positive benefit-risk profile of rivaroxaban for the treatment of deep vein thrombosis that was observed in the phase 3 EINSTEIN-DVT study, signaling that the medicine is performing as expected in patients that physicians typically see in everyday clinical practice."

Researchers found that the mean length of hospital stay was 5.0 days for patients treated with Xarelto and 7.7 days for those treated with standard anticoagulation.”Shorter hospital stay will reduce healthcare costs and improve patient satisfaction,” Turpie said.

Major bleeding occurred in 0.8% of patients receiving Xarelto and 2.1% of those receiving standard anticoagulation. Notably, there were no fatal bleeding events in the Xarelto group, while 2 fatal bleeding events occurred in the standard anticoagulation group.

Meanwhile, recurrent blood clots occurred in 1.4% of patients receiving Xarelto and 2.3% of those receiving standard anticoagulation. All-cause mortality occurred in 0.4% of patients taking Xarelto, versus 3.4% of those taking standard anticoagulation.

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