Corlentor

ivabradine

This is a summary of the European public assessment report (EPAR) for Corlentor. It explains how the Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP) assessed the medicine to reach its opinion in favour of granting a marketing authorisation and its recommendations on the conditions of use for Corlentor.

What is Corlentor?

Corlentor is a medicine that contains the active substance ivabradine. It is available as tablets (5 mg and 7.5 mg. The 5 mg tablets have a score line that enables them to be divided into two halves each containing 2.5 mg ivabradine).

What is Corlentor used for?

Corlentor is used to treat the symptoms of long-term stable angina (pains to the chest, jaw and back, brought on by physical effort) in adults with coronary artery disease (disease of the heart caused by the obstruction of the blood vessels that supply blood to the heart muscle) who have a normal heart rhythm. It is used in patients who cannot be treated with beta-blockers (another type of medicine to treat angina), or in combination with beta-blockers in patients whose disease is not controlled with them alone and whose heart rate is above 60 beats per minute.

Corlentor is also used in patients with long-term heart failure (when the heart cannot pump enough blood to the rest of the body) who have a normal heart rhythm but whose heart rate is at least 75 beats per minute. It is used in combination with standard therapy including beta-blockers, or in patients who cannot be treated with beta-blockers.

The medicine can only be obtained with a prescription.

How is Corlentor used?

Corlentor is taken twice a day with meals, once in the morning and once in the evening. The recommended starting dose is 5 mg twice a day, which may then be increased to 7.5 mg twice a day or decreased to 2.5 mg twice a day depending on the patient’s heart rate. If the heart rate is between 50 and 60 beats per minute, the dose of 5 mg twice daily should be maintained. The adjustment is made after three to four weeks in coronary artery disease and after two weeks in long-term heart failure. In patients over 75 years old, a lower starting dose of 2.5 mg twice a day can be used. Treatment must be stopped if the heart rate remains below 50 beats per minute or if symptoms of bradycardia (slow heart rate) continue.

How does Corlentor work?

The symptoms of angina are caused by the heart not receiving enough oxygenated blood. In stable angina, these symptoms appear during physical effort. The active substance in Corlentor, ivabradine, works by blocking the ‘If currents’ in the sinus node, the ‘pacemaker’ for the heart that controls the heart’s contractions and regulates the heart rate. When these currents are blocked, the heart rate is lowered, so that the heart has less work to do and needs less oxygenated blood. Corlentor therefore reduces or prevents the symptoms of angina.

The symptoms of heart failure are caused by the heart not pumping enough blood around the body. By lowering the heart rate, Corlentor reduces the stress on the heart, thereby slowing the progression of heart failure and improving symptoms.

How has Corlentor been studied?

Corlentor has been studied in five main studies involving over 4,000 adults with long-term stable angina. The medicine was compared with placebo (a dummy treatment) in 360 patients, atenolol (a beta-blocker) in 939 patients and amlodipine (another medicine used to treat angina) in 1,195 patients. It was also compared with placebo as an add-on to atenolol in 889 patients and as an add-on to amlodipine in 728 patients. Each study lasted three to four months. The main measure of effectiveness was how long the patients could exercise on a bicycle or a treadmill, measured at the start and the end of each study.

Corlentor has also been compared with placebo in one main study involving 6,558 patients with long-term moderate to severe heart failure. The main measure of effectiveness was the time until death due to disease of the heart or blood vessels, or hospitalisation due to worsening heart failure.

What benefit has Corlentor shown during the studies?

In patients with long-term stable angina, Corlentor was more effective than placebo at improving exercise capacity and was as effective as atenolol and amlodipine. Corlentor was also more effective than placebo when added to atenolol. However, adding Corlentor to amlodipine did not provide an additional benefit.

In patients with long-term heart failure, Corlentor was more effective than placebo at preventing death due to disease of the heart or blood vessels or hospitalisation due to worsening heart failure: 24.5% (793 out of 3,241) of patients treated with Corlentor died or were hospitalised for the first time due to worsening heart failure, compared with 28.7% (937 out of 3,264) of patients treated with placebo.

What is the risk associated with Corlentor?

The most common side effect with Corlentor (seen in more than 1 patient in 10) is luminous phenomena or ‘phosphenes’ (a temporary brightness in the field of vision). For the full list of all side effects reported with Corlentor, see the package leaflet.

Corlentor must not be used in people who are hypersensitive (allergic) to ivabradine or any of the other ingredients. It must not be used in patients who have a resting heart rate below 60 beats per minute, very low blood pressure, various types of heart disorder (including cardiogenic shock, rhythm disorders, heart attack, unstable or acute (sudden) heart failure and unstable angina) or severe liver problems. It must not be used in women who are pregnant or breast-feeding. For the full list of restrictions, see the package leaflet.

Caution is needed if Corlentor is taken with some other medicines. See the package leaflet for full details.

Why has Corlentor been approved?

The CHMP concluded that Corlentor was shown to be effective in long-term angina with an acceptable safety profile for it to provide an alternative treatment for patients who cannot take beta-blockers or whose disease is not controlled with them. It also concluded that Corlentor was effective in long-term heart failure with an acceptable safety profile. The Committee decided that Corlentor’s benefits are greater than its risks and recommended that it be given marketing authorisation.

Other information about Corlentor

The European Commission granted a marketing authorisation valid throughout the European Union for Corlentor on 25 October 2005.

For more information about treatment with Corlentor, read the package leaflet (also part of the EPAR) or contact your doctor or pharmacist.

This EPAR was last updated on 27/03/2012 .

More detail is available in the summary of product characteristics

Product details

Publication details

Product information

06/02/2012  Corlentor -EMEA/H/C/000598 -II/0018

Contents

• Annex I - Summary of product characteristics
• Annex IIA - Manufacturing-authorisation holder responsible for batch release
• Annex IIB - Conditions of the marketing authorisation
• Annex IIIA - Labelling
• Annex IIIB - Package leaflet

Please note that the size of the above document can exceed 50 pages.

You are therefore advised to be selective about which sections or pages you wish to print.

Pharmacotherapeutic group

Cardiac therapy

Therapeutic indication

Treatment of coronary artery disease
Symptomatic treatment of chronic stable angina pectoris in coronary artery disease patients with normal sinus rhythm. Ivabradine is indicated:

- in patients unable to tolerate or with a contra-indication to the use of beta-blockers

- or in combination with beta-blockers in patients inadequately controlled with an optimal beta-blocker dose and whose heart rate is > 60 bpm.

Treatment of chronic heart failure
Ivabradine is indicated in chronic heart failure NYHA II to IV class with systolic dysfunction, in patients in sinus rhythm and whose heart rate is ? 75 bpm, in combination with standard therapy including beta-blocker therapy or when beta-blocker therapy is contraindicated or not tolerated. (see section 5.1) 

Changes since initial authorisation of medicine

Initial marketing-authorisation documents