Some people with heart failure need to take multiple medicines each day to keep their symptoms under control. Heart failure is a chronic, or long-term, condition. It can lead to issues not only in the heart but other organs in the body as well. This can lead to hospitalizations and death if not managed properly.
Verquvo (ver-KYU-voh) was approved in 2021 for people who have symptoms because of their heart failure. It is a medicine that may help lower your chances of going to the hospital or dying because of your heart failure.
How Does It Work?
Heart failure occurs when the heart does not properly pump blood out to the rest of the body. The heart may not pump as well as it should if the muscles around the heart have become too weak or if the muscles in the heart thicken and become stiff. Heart failure is a serious medical condition that can lead to hospitalizations and death if not treated properly.
Heart failure can cause many symptoms that can affect multiple parts of the body. These symptoms include shortness of breath, swelling, coughing, weight gain, tiredness, loss of appetite, fast heartbeat, and confusion.
Verquvo is approved for use in people with symptoms of chronic (long-lasting) heart failure who have recently been hospitalized or need to receive specific intravenous (IV) medicines (diuretics) to manage their heart failure and have an ejection fraction of 45% or less. Ejection fraction (EF) is the percentage of blood that leaves your heart when the lower chambers of your heart contract.
In healthy people, there is a substance that your body makes called nitric oxide (NO) that helps your blood vessels relax by activating a protein called soluble guanylate cyclase (sGC). People with heart failure often do not make enough NO, which means they do not fully activate sGC, which can lead to tightened blood vessels. Verquvo activates sGC (like NO does) and causes your blood vessels to relax. When your blood vessels are relaxed, your heart is able to pump blood and oxygen to the rest of your body easier.
How Do I Take It?
Verquvo is taken once a day with food. If you cannot swallow the tablet, you can crush the tablet and mix it with water right before you take your dose. Verquvo comes as a 2.5-milligram, 5-milligram, and 10-milligram tablet. It is recommended to start at the lowest dose and to double the dose every 2 weeks until you reach 10 milligrams. Your health care provider will determine if and when to change your dose depending on how you tolerate the medicine.
How Was It Studied?
One clinical study was conducted to test the safety and effectiveness of Verquvo in people with chronic heart failure. The study looked to see if Verquvo was better than a placebo containing no medicine in reducing the number of hospitalizations and death due to heart failure. The study included White people (64%), Asian people (22%), Black people (5%), and those classified as “Other” (9%). There were more men (76%) in the study than women (24%). The average age of people in the study was 67.
What Were the Benefits?
Compared to placebo, Verquvo lowered the risk of people going to the hospital and possibly lowered the risk of people dying due to their heart failure. People taking Verquvo had a lower percentage of heart failure events that led to hospitalization or death at 35.5% compared to placebo at 38.5%.
How Can I Tell If It Is Working?
Verquvo lowers your chances of going to the hospital due to your heart failure and may lower your chances of death. You may start seeing an improvement in your heart failure symptoms as you are taking Verquvo. Your health care provider may add additional medicine or change your medicine to manage your heart failure symptoms.
What Are the Side Effects and How can I Manage Them?
The most common side effects seen with Verquvo are low blood pressure and low red blood cells.
Low blood pressure (hypotension) can cause dizziness, confusion, tiredness, and fainting. It is important that you sit down as soon as you start to feel dizzy. Check your blood pressure as soon as you can and call your health care provider if your blood pressure is below 90/60. Your health care provider can tell you how to manage low blood pressure.
You may have low red blood cells (anemia) while taking Verquvo. This can cause dizziness, headache, cold hands and feet, fast heartbeat, shortness of breath, and tiredness. Your health care provider may do blood tests while you are taking Verquvo to monitor your red blood cell levels.
What Type of Drug Interactions Can Happen?
You should not take Verquvo with other medicines classified as an sGC stimulator such as Adempas (riociguat), which is used to treat high blood pressure in the lungs. Verquovo is also an sGC stimulator.
It is not recommended to take a PDE-5 inhibitor with Verquvo because it can cause your blood pressure to lower. PDE-5 inhibitors include and Cialis (tadalafil) and Viagra (sildenafil).
Is There a Cost-Savings Program?
There is a savings coupon and free trial offer provided by the manufacturer. The savings coupon can help with your out-of-pocket costs, and the free trial offer provides a free 30-day supply of Verquvo. You can find out more by visiting www.verquvo-us.com/special-offers.
