Entresto Awarded Prix Galien Canada Innovative Product Award

Novartis heart failure treatment Entresto (sacubitril/valsartan) has been named the winner of the 2018 Prix Galien Canada Innovative Product Award. Entresto was approved in 2015 by Health Canada for the treatment of heart failure with reduced ejection fraction in patients with New York Heart Association (NYHA) Class II or III, to reduce the incidence of cardiovascular death and heart failure hospitalization. The award was presented to Novartis last night at a ceremony in Toronto.

The Prix Galien is the most prestigious award in the field of Canadian pharmaceutical research and innovation. The Innovative Product Award recognizes the new treatment that has "made the most significant overall contribution to patient care in Canada in terms of efficacy, safety, benefits and innovation."

"We are very proud of our work with Entresto. Receiving this award recognizes the innovation this treatment brings to Canadian patients," said Janice Murray, President, Novartis Pharmaceuticals Canada Inc. who accepted the award at the ceremony. "It is a tribute to the large team of Novartis researchers, clinical researchers across Canada as well as our many Novartis associates who worked for years to develop Entresto and make it available to patients."

The work of the Novartis researchers which ultimately led to the development of Entresto began with an important discovery by Canadian researchers. In 1980, a team led by Dr. Adolfo J. de Bold, at Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario, and including others at the University of Toronto, discovered atrial natriuretic peptide (ANP), a hormone excreted by heart muscle cells. This work established that the heart has an endocrine function through which it modulates blood pressure, blood volume and cardiovascular growth. The discovery was the basis of subsequent research by Dr. de Bold and others for new heart disease treatments, including Entresto.

Heart failure is a debilitating and life-threatening condition in which the heart cannot pump enough blood around the body. Symptoms such as breathlessness, fatigue and fluid retention can appear slowly and worsen over time, significantly impacting quality of life. An estimated 600,000 Canadians live with heart failure and about one in five individuals will develop it at some point in their lives. Heart failure is responsible for nine per cent of all deaths in Canada or about 22,000 per year which is almost equal to the number of deaths from breast, colorectal, prostate and pancreatic cancer combined. In Canada, it is the fifth leading cause of hospitalization overall and the second leading cause of hospitalization in Canada for people 65 years or older.

Entresto is a first-in-class medicine containing sacubitril, a neutral endopeptidase inhibitor and valsartan, an angiotensin II AT1 receptor blocker. A twice-a-day tablet, it has a unique mode of action which is thought to reduce the strain on the failing heart by enhancing the protective neurohormonal systems of the heart (NP system) while simultaneously suppressing the compensatory renin–angiotensin–aldosterone system (the RAAS) which can be harmful over time.

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