New aspirin formulation may be easier on stomach, GI tract

HOUSTON — A recent clinical trial involving a new drug formulation incorporating aspirin with soy-derived phosphatidylcholine found that the drug combination significantly can reduce irritation to the stomach and upper gastrointestinal tract.

Healthy volunteers with an age-associated risk of ulceration who took the combination had 70% fewer gastrointestinal ulcers than those receiving regular aspirin. PL2200 previously has demonstrated equivalent antiplatelet activity, which suggested the product is the bioequivalent to regular aspirin in promoting heart health, study authors noted.

“One of the major issues with aspirin is that it causes ulceration to the stomach,” stated Byron Cryer, the study’s lead author and holder of the John C. Vanatta, III Professorship at The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas. “Despite all the potential approaches that have been looked at over the past decade, aspirin-induced ulceration remains an issue. Mechanistically, this formulation could give us a solution.”

Participants were between 50 and 74 years of age. Findings appear in a recent online publication of the American Journal of Gastroenterology.