heart failure

Millions of people with mild or moderate heart failure got good news Sunday, with studies showing a Pfizer drug and a device from Medtronic can boost survival and cut trips to the hospital by patients having trouble breathing.

(University of Rochester Medical Center) The FDA's Circulatory System Devices Panel recommended that the cardiac resynchronization therapy defibrillator (CRT-D), developed by Boston Scientific, be approved for use in patients with mild heart failure in the United States.

If the device is approved by the FDA, nearly 4 million more Americans could be candidates for treatment with the CRT-D.

ARCA Biopharma, Inc. (NASDAQ: ABIO) 89.3% HIGHER; today announced that the U.S. FDA has designated as a Fast Track development program the investigation of Gencaro, the Company's investigational, pharmacologically unique beta-blocker and mild vasodilator, for the reduction of cardiovascular mortality and cardiovascular hospitalizations in a genotype-defined heart failure population.

Merck says its heart failure treatment rolofylline missed its goals in a trial, failing to improve patient symptoms compared with a placebo.