Dr. C. Michael Gibson, of the Harvard Medical School has completed a study funded in part by the Bayer drug company in connection with a new medication that could potentially save the lives of thousands of people who have had either a heart attack or serious heart related chest pain caused by arterial damage or blockage. That drug,Xarelto, has some serious side effects that could make them potentially risky to take. The results of the study have been published in the New England Journal of Medicine.

Gibson tested the drug with some 15,5000 patients who were all set to leave the hospital or had recently been released, all after having either had a heart attack or other heart related ailment.All patients were given the traditional treatment including an aspirin and other blood thinners but one third were also given a high dose of the new drug, Xarelto and another third were given a smaller daily dose. After one year, the study found that over ten percent of the patients only on the traditional medications had either had another heart attack, suffered a stroke or had succumbed to a heart related death. Less than nine percent of the patients taking Xarelto had had any complications at all. Gibson also found that patients responded better with fewer safety risks at the lower dose than with the higher one. After one year, there was an over thirty percent lower risk of dying from any cause than in the control group or the group taking the higher dose of the medication.

But, critics of the study are pointing out that because the funding for the study is coming from the drug maker, it is not time to celebrate just yet. And,there is the matter of the serious complications and side effects that are seen with Xarelto including a risk for internal bleeding that is four times higher than that of traditional medications. A similar drug made by another drug company was reported to have had negative results in initial testing and will be unlikely to be approved for further tests until it is changed. Xarelto has also been used to prevent strokes in some patients, but at much higher doses.

Cost is another cause for concern with the makers of Xarelto admitting that right now it will likely be a fairly expensive type of medication, much higher than what is currently on the market. Further testing will be conducted before it is given the green light for widespread usage.