Pharmacotherapeutic group: Cardiac therapy, other vasodilators used in cardiac diseases, ATC code: C01DX22
Mechanism of action
Vericiguat is a stimulator of soluble guanylate cyclase (sGC). Heart failure is associated with impaired synthesis of nitric oxide (NO) and decreased activity of its receptor, sGC. Deficiency in sGC‑derived cyclic guanosine monophosphate (cGMP) contributes to myocardial and vascular dysfunction. Vericiguat restores the relative deficiency in the NO-sGC-cGMP signalling pathway by directly stimulating sGC, independently of and synergistically with NO, to augment the levels of intracellular cGMP, which may improve both myocardial and vascular function.
Pharmacodynamic effects
The pharmacodynamic effects of vericiguat are consistent with the mode of action of a sGC stimulator resulting in smooth muscle relaxation and vasodilation.
In a 12‑week placebo-controlled dose-finding study (SOCRATES-REDUCED) in patients with heart failure, vericiguat demonstrated a dose-dependent reduction in NT‑proBNP, a biomarker in heart failure, compared to placebo when added to standard of care. In VICTORIA, the estimated reduction from baseline NT‑proBNP at week 32 was greater in patients who received vericiguat compared with placebo (see clinical efficacy and safety).
Cardiac electrophysiology
In a dedicated QT study in patients with stable coronary artery disease, administration of 10 mg of vericiguat at steady state did not prolong the QT interval to a clinically relevant extent, i.e. the maximum mean prolongation of the QTcF interval did not exceed 6 ms (upper bound of the 90% CI <10 ms).
Clinical efficacy and safety
The safety and efficacy of vericiguat were evaluated in a randomised, parallel-group, placebo-controlled, double-blind, event-driven, multi-centre trial (VICTORIA) comparing vericiguat and placebo in 5,050 adult patients with symptomatic chronic heart failure (NYHA class II–IV) and left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) less than 45% following a worsening heart failure (HF) event. A worsening chronic HF event was defined as heart failure hospitalisation within 6 months before randomisation or use of outpatient IV diuretics for heart failure within 3 months before randomisation.
Patients were treated up to the target maintenance dose of vericiguat 10 mg once daily or matching placebo in combination with other HF therapies. Therapy was initiated at 2.5 mg vericiguat once daily and increased in approximately 2 week intervals to 5 mg once daily and then 10 mg once daily, as tolerated. After approximately 1 year, 89% of vericiguat-treated patients and 91% of placebo-treated patients received the 10 mg target dose in addition to other HF therapies.
The primary endpoint was the time to first event of the composite of cardiovascular (CV) death or hospitalisation for HF. The median follow‑up for the primary endpoint was 11 months. Patients on vericiguat were treated for a mean duration of 1 year and up to 2.6 years.
The mean age of the studied population was 67 years, a total of 1,596 (63%) patients treated with vericiguat were 65 years and older, and 783 (31%) patients treated with vericiguat were 75 years and older. At randomisation, 58.9% of patients were NYHA Class II, 39.7% were NYHA Class III, and 1.3% were NYHA Class IV. The mean LVEF was 28.9%, approximately half of all patients had an LVEF <30%, and 14.3% of patients had an LVEF between 40% and 45%. The most frequently reported medical history conditions other than HF included hypertension (79%), coronary artery disease (58%), hyperlipidaemia (57%), diabetes mellitus (47%), atrial fibrillation (45%), and myocardial infarction (42%). At randomisation, the mean eGFR was 62 mL/min/1.73 m2 (88% of patients >30 mL/min/1.73 m2; 10% of patients ≤30 mL/min/1.73 m2). 67% of the patients in VICTORIA were enrolled within 3 months of a HF hospitalisation; 17% were enrolled within 3 to 6 months of HF hospitalisation and 16% were enrolled within 3 months of outpatient treatment with IV diuretics. The median NT‑proBNP level was 2,816 pg/mL at randomisation.
At baseline, more than 99% of patients were treated with other HF therapies which included beta blockers (93%), angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors or angiotensin II receptor blockers (ARB) (73%), mineralocorticoid receptor antagonists (MRA) (70%), a combination of an angiotensin receptor and neprilysin inhibitor (ARNI) (15%), ivabradine (6%), implantable cardiac defibrillators (28%), and biventricular pacemakers (15%). 91% of patients were treated with 2 or more HF medicinal products (beta blocker, any renin-angiotensin system [RAS] inhibitor, or MRA) and 60% of patients were treated with all 3. 3% of patients were on a sodium glucose co‑transporter 2 (SGLT2) inhibitor.
Vericiguat was superior to placebo in reducing the risk of CV death or HF hospitalisation based on a time‑to‑event analysis. Over the course of the study, the annualised absolute risk reduction (ARR) was 4.2% with vericiguat compared with placebo. Therefore, 24 patients would need to be treated over an average of 1 year to prevent 1 primary endpoint event. The treatment effect reflected a reduction in the risk of CV death, HF hospitalisation, all-cause mortality or HF hospitalisation and total number of HF hospitalisation (see table 2 and figure 1).
Table 2: Treatment effect for the primary composite endpoint, its components, and the secondary endpoints
| | Vericiguat N=2,526 | Placebo N=2,524 | Treatment comparison |
| n (%) [Annual %1] | n (%) [Annual %1] | Hazard Ratio (95% CI)2 [Annualised ARR %]4 |
| Primary endpoint |
| Composite of CV death or HF hospitalisation5 CV death HF hospitalisation | 897 (35.5) [33.6] 206 (8.2) 691 (27.4) | 972 (38.5) [37.8] 225 (8.9) 747 (29.6) | 0.90 (0.82, 0.98) p = 0.0193 [4.2] |
| Secondary endpoints |
| CV death | 414 (16.4) [12.9] | 441 (17.5) [13.9] | 0.93 (0.81, 1.06) |
| HF hospitalisation | 691 (27.4) [25.9] | 747 (29.6) [29.1] | 0.90 (0.81, 1.00) |
| Composite of all-cause mortality or HF hospitalisation5 | 957 (37.9) [35.9] | 1,032 (40.9) [40.1] | 0.90 (0.83, 0.98) |
| Total number of HF hospitalisations (first and recurrent) | 1,223 [38.3] | 1,336 [42.4] | 0.91 (0.84, 0.99)6 |
1 Total patients with an event per 100 patient years at risk.
2 Hazard ratio (vericiguat over placebo) and confidence interval from a Cox proportional hazards model.
3 From the log‑rank test. p‑value applies to HR only and not annualised ARR.
4 Annualised absolute risk reduction, calculated as difference (placebo-vericiguat) in annual %.
5 For patients with multiple events, only the first event contributing to the composite endpoint is counted.
6 Hazard ratio (vericiguat over placebo) and confidence interval from an Andersen-Gill model.
N=Number of patients in Intent‑to‑treat (ITT) population; n=Number of patients with an event.
Figure 1: Kaplan-Meier curve for the primary composite endpoint: time to first occurrence of CV death or HF hospitalisation
A wide range of demographic characteristics, baseline disease characteristics and baseline concomitant medicinal products were examined for their influence on outcomes. The results of the primary composite endpoint were generally consistent across subgroups. Results of select pre‑specified subgroup analyses are shown in figure 2.
Figure 2: Primary composite endpoint (time to first occurrence of CV death or HF hospitalisation) ‑ select subgroups of the pre-specified analyses
Patients with very high NT-proBNP may not be fully stabilised and require further optimisation of volume status and diuretic therapy (see sections 4.1 and 4.2).
Paediatric population
The European Medicines Agency has deferred the obligation to submit the results of studies with Verquvo in one or more subsets of the paediatric population in the treatment of left ventricular failure (see section 4.2 for information on paediatric use).