Astellas launches Lexiscan for radionuclide MPI

Astellas Pharma US has released Lexiscan injection, an A2A adenosine receptor agonist, for use as a pharmacologic stress agent in radionuclide myocardial perfusion imaging (MPI) in patients unable to undergo adequate exercise stress testing.
 
Lexiscan, co-developed with the Palo Alto, Calif.-based CV Therapeutics, is the first A2A adenosine receptor agonist shown to be safe and effective as a pharmacologic stress agent in MPI studies, according to the Deerfield, Ill.-based Astellas.

In two identically designed Phase III clinical trials, the company said that Lexiscan (regadenoson) met its primary endpoints for scan agreement rates by showing with 95 percent confidence that MPI studies conducted with Lexiscan were similar to MPI studies conducted with Adenoscan (adenosine injection).

“Our clinical experience shows that an increasing number of patients are requiring pharmacologic stress agents for MPI studies,” said Gregory Thomas, MD, associate professor of medicine and director of nuclear cardiology education at the University of California at Irvine School of Medicine.

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