Drug Benefit

A clot-busting drug revives cardiac arrest patients. In a study of 163 people who suffered cardiac arrest (in which electrical signals that regulate the heart become erratic due to heart attack, a blood clot in the lungs or other causes), 50 patients received the clot-busting drug tenecteplase (TNKase), while the rest received cardiopulmonary resuscitation, drugs such as Adrenalin, and an electric shock to the heart.

Result: Twenty-six percent of those treated with tenecteplase were revived, compared with 12% in the standard therapy group.