bivalirudin

1 INDICATIONS AND USAGE Bivalirudin for injection is indicated for use as an anticoagulant for use in patients undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) including patients with heparin-induced thrombocytopenia and heparin-induced thrombocytopenia and thrombosis syndrome. Bivalirudin for injection is a direct thrombin inhibitor indicated for use as an anticoagulant in patients undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) including patients with heparin-induced thrombocytopenia (HIT) or heparin-induced thrombocytopenia and thrombosis syndrome (HITTS).( 1 )

6 ADVERSE REACTIONS Most common adverse reaction (>2%) was bleeding. ( 6.1 ) To report SUSPECTED ADVERSE REACTIONS, contact Sandoz Inc. at 1-800-525-8747 or FDA at 1-800-FDA-1088 or www.fda.gov/medwatch. 6.1 Clinical Trials Experience Because clinical trials are conducted under widely varying conditions, adverse reaction rates observed in the clinical trials of a drug cannot be directly compared to rates in the clinical trials of another drug and may not reflect the rates observed in practice. In the BAT trials, 79 of the 2161 (3.7%) patients undergoing PCI for treatment of unstable angina and randomized to bivalirudin experienced major bleeding events, which consisted of intracranial bleeding, retroperitoneal bleeding, and clinically overt bleeding with a decrease in hemoglobin greater than 3 g/dL or leading to a transfusion of greater than 2 units of blood. 6.2 Immunogenicity As with all peptides, there is potential for immunogenicity. The detection of antibody formation is highly dependent on the sensitivity and specificity of the assay. Additionally, the observed incidence of antibody (including neutralizing antibody) positivity in an assay may be influenced by several factors including assay methodology, sample handling, timing of sample collection, concomitant medications, and underlying disease. For these reasons, comparison of the incidence of antibodies to bivalirudin in the studies described below with the incidence of antibodies in other studies or to other products may be misleading. In in vitro studies, bivalirudin exhibited no platelet aggregation response against sera from patients with a history of HIT/HITTS. Among 494 subjects who received bivalirudin in clinical trials and were tested for antibodies, 2 subjects had treatment-emergent positive bivalirudin antibody tests. Neither subject demonstrated clinical evidence of allergic or anaphylactic reactions and repeat testing was not performed. Nine additional patients who had initial positive tests were negative on repeat testing. 6.3 Postmarketing Experience Because postmarketing adverse reactions are reported voluntarily from a population of uncertain size, it is not always possible to reliably estimate their frequency or establish a causal relationship to drug exposure. The following adverse reactions have been identified during post approval use of bivalirudin: fatal bleeding; hypersensitivity and allergic reactions including reports of anaphylaxis; lack of anticoagulant effect; thrombus formation during PCI with and without intracoronary brachytherapy, including reports of fatal outcomes; pulmonary hemorrhage; cardiac tamponade; and INR increased.