AFR - 10 Aril 2017

http://www.copyright link/business/health/biotechnology/mesoblast-shares-all-a-flutter-on-heart-failure-trial-success-20170410-gvhnhr

Mesoblast has impressed investors with news that almost half of the heart failure patients involved in a late stage clinical trial have been successfully protected for a whole year from a sudden or significant worsening of their condition.
Treating heart failure could be a huge opportunity for Mesoblast.
In 2016, more than 15 million patients in the seven major global pharmaceutical markets, encompassing the United States, Japan and five European countries, are estimated to have been diagnosed with chronic heart failure, according to PharmaPoint.
Those patients with damaged cardiac muscles have weak hearts that struggle to pump blood around the body and about half of those who develop heart failure die within five years of diagnosis.
However Mesoblast said on Monday that, in the strict jargon reserved for clinical trials, its phase-three trial of mesenchymal precursor cell injections in heart failure patients successfully passed "interim futility analysis". That means those patients lived for a full-year without a major cardiovascular event requiring hospitalisation, and that crucially the clinical trial should continue running.