Palo Alto, CA—Sacubitril-valsartan is reasonably cost effective compared to widely used therapies for reducing mortality and morbidity in patients with reduced ejection fraction heart failure. That’s according to an article published online by Annals of Internal Medicine, which notes that heart failure with reduced ejection fraction is commonly treated with an ACE inhibitor or angiotensin-receptor blocker (ARB) because the therapies are proven effective and are inexpensive. The recent PARADIGM-HF trial found, however, that sacubitril-valsartan, an angiotensin receptor-neprilysin inhibitor (ARNI), reduced cardiovascular mortality, decreased hospitalizations, and improved quality of life compared to a commonly prescribed ACE inhibitor. Because sacubitril-valsartan is significantly more expensive at a cost of $12.50 a day, researchers from the Veterans Affairs Palo Alto Health Care System sought to determine if the incremental health benefits justified the increase in treatment cost.

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