Apixaban is an anticoagulant (also known as blood thinner) approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for reducing the risk of stroke and systemic embolism in patients with non-valvular atrial fibrillation. It has no reliable method of reversal. Kcentra is an FDA approved drug derived from blood that is used as an antidote to treat people with bleeding associated with taking the well-known anticoagulant warfarin. This is a Phase I, placebo-controlled, single site, open-label, crossover trial to evaluate the reversibility apixaban anticoagulation with Kcentra.
Oral anticoagulants are effective in the treatment and prevention of venous and arterial thrombotic events. For more than 50 years the only class of anticoagulant available had been the vitamin K antagonist (VKA), warfarin, which requires frequent blood work for monitoring. Apixaban is a new approved anticoagulant that is used to treat patients who have blood clots or are at risk for developing blood clots. Unlike warfarin, the use of apixaban does not require frequent blood work for monitoring and is associated with lower bleeding risk. All anticoagulation therapies are associated with spontaneous or provoked bleeding risk and reversal of their blood thinning effects might be needed. Reversal of anticoagulation may also be needed in cases where emergent or urgent surgery is indicated. There is currently no available reversal agent for apixaban. Prothrombin complex concentrate (PCC) contain clotting factors and can replace factors inhibited by anticoagulants. In a recent study in the Netherlands a four factor prothrombin complex concentrate, Cofact (not available in the USA) was shown to be able to reverse the anticoagulation effects of another factor Xa inhibitor, rivaroxaban. Kcentra is a four factor prothrombin complex concentrate that was FDA approved in 2013 and is used as an antidote to treat people with bleeding associated with taking warfarin. It contains clotting factors II, VII, IX and X derived from donated blood and could be effective in reversing the anticoagulation effects of the factor Xa inhibitor, apixaban. No effective reversal agent for apixaban exists. Physicians struggle with bleeding in patients who are on apixaban. Indeed, this is not an uncommon problem for patients who suffer brain bleeds or trauma. This study could potentially identify Kcentra as reversal agent for patients taking apixaban. This study will test the hypothesis that Kcentra has the potential to significantly reduce the anticoagulation effect of apixaban as measured by thrombin generation assay at 30 minutes post infusion of Kcentra as compared to placebo infusion in subjects dosed to steady state with apixaban.
Study Type
INTERVENTIONAL
Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Purpose
TREATMENT
Masking
SINGLE
Enrollment
12
Thomas Jefferson University Hosptial
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States
thrombin generation assay (TGA)
Time frame: 30 minutes
Anti-factor Xa activity
Time frame: 30 minutes
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