Predicting and Preventing Heart Failure

It’s Heart Failure Awareness Week and an alarming study published recently in JAMA Cardiology highlights the growing problem of a disease that can have devastating consequences for patients and imposes a huge financial burden on healthcare systems. As the U.S. population continues to age, the human and economic costs of heart failure will only increase – unless we find better ways, first, to predict who is at risk and, then, to prevent onset or delay progression of the disease.

What is heart failure? Simply stated, it means that the heart isn’t pumping as well as it should be. Your body depends on the heart’s pumping action to deliver oxygen- and nutrient-rich blood to the body’s cells. A weakened or failing heart has less ability to function, with the result that it can’t pump enough blood to meet your body’s needs. People with heart failure tend to have a miserable quality of life, characterized by fatigue, shortness of breath, swelling in the arms and legs, and difficulty managing even the most basic physical activities. Tragically, roughly half of heart failure patients die within five years of diagnosis (a grim truth discussed here by Amgen employee Lisa B, who lost her father to the disease).

More than six million Americans are living with heart failure, and that number is expected to exceed eight million by 2030. As the JAMA article reports, deaths in the U.S. from heart failure increased almost 40% between 2011 and 2017, concentrated among people 65 and older. That makes heart failure an important reason why the U.S. death rate from cardiovascular disease has begun to rise in recent years, reversing a decades-long decline. A new study from the @National Forum for Heart Disease and Stroke Prevention estimates that annual spending on heart failure in the U.S. will reach $70 billion by 2030 – up from some $30 billion in 2012.

There’s no time to lose in tackling this challenge, and Amgen is committed to the fight on several fronts:

• We are working with Duke, Intermountain Healthcare and other partners on a study to measure the impact of digital devices such as smart watches and sleep sensors in decreasing time to treat, improving physician-patient interaction, and achieving better outcomes. 
• We are supporting @WomenHeart’s Facebook Live online community for people with heart failure, the @Heart Failure Society of America “Quality Care Initiative” to establish more and better heart failure clinics and help physicians communicate more effectively with patients, and informational webinars and live sessions for patients organized by the Heart Failure Society of America in collaboration with @Mended Hearts and @Needy Meds. 
• Amgen is partnering with the @Global Coalition on Aging as it establishes a new Global Alliance on Heart Failure and Healthy Aging. The Alliance brings together more than 30 organizations – including advocacy groups, medical societies, key opinion and thought leaders, and innovative companies like ours – to quantify the scope of the heart failure challenge, elevate it as a health priority, and identify new ways to address it. 

These initiatives are on top of our work to develop new heart failure treatments, the most advanced of which is omecamtiv mecarbil, a “cardiac myotrope” that Amgen is developing in collaboration with Cytokinetics and Servier. Currently in Phase 3 clinical trials, it is being studied for treatment of heart failure with reduced ejection fraction, a widespread form of the disease in which weakened muscle of the heart’s left ventricle does not contract effectively, resulting in less blood being pumped out of that chamber and to the body.

For nearly 40 years, Amgen’s mission has been to serve patients – especially those suffering from serious disease. Heart failure is one such disease and provides a great example of how a “predict and prevent” approach might benefit patients – and save money. I’ll keep you posted on our progress.