A more than four-month wait for detailed data from the Phase III cardiovascular outcomes trial of Merck & Co. Inc./Bayer AG’s vericiguat underwhelmed compared to the original positive top-line data release. The VICTORIA trial, detailed on 30 March during a virtual presentation at the American College of Cardiology meeting, showed that vericiguat in combination with available heart failure drugs improved the rate of heart failure-related hospitalizations but did not offer an improvement in cardiovascular deaths.
Analysts said these data still leave vericiguat – an oral soluble guanylate cyclase (sGC) stimulator – likely to obtain approval in patients with worsening heart failure, but probably as a niche product
