PPIs do not interfere with anti-platelet drugs, study concludes

BOSTON Drugs commonly used to treat heartburn and acid-reflux disease don’t interfere with drugs used to prevent clotting in patients with heart disease, according to a new study.

The 13,608-patient study, led by Michelle O’Donoghue and colleagues at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston. and published online and in the upcoming edition of medical journal The Lancet, found that such proton-pump inhibitors as AstraZeneca’s Prilosec (omeprazole) and Nexium (esomeprazole) did not endanger patients when combined with such anti-platelet drugs as Bristol-Myers Squibb’s and Sanofi-Aventis’ Plavix (clopidogrel) and Eli Lilly & Co.’s Effient (prasugrel).

Patients given anti-platelet drugs following heart attack or unstable angina are often given proton pump inhibitors to reduce the risk of gastrointestinal bleeding, but recent studies have suggested that proton-pump inhibitors could reduce the effectiveness of the anti-platelet drugs, increasing the risk of heart attack and stroke. The new study could relieve fears among patients, healthcare providers and the drugs’ manufacturers.

“The current findings do not support the need to avoid concomitant use of proton pump inhibitors, when clinically indicated, in patients receiving clopidogrel or prasugrel,” the authors wrote in their conclusion.