text_1: XARELTO® (rivaroxaban) Associated with Significantly Reduced Time in Hospital and Decreased Costs Compared to Standard of Care in New Study of Patients with Low-Risk Pulmonary Embolism (PE)
text_2: iStock / Getty Images Plus The news release is about a study that explores if patients with pulmonary embolism, a blood clot in the lungs, who are at low risk for complications can be sent home from the emergency department early rather than be admitted to hospital. The patients were divided into two groups: One group of patients were sent home early while taking rivaroxaban (Xarelto), a type of blood thinner, whereas the “usual care” group could get any blood thinner of their physician’s choosing, including rivaroxaban, and hospitalization. The study findings suggest that early discharge of low-risk patients was safe and feasible and also resulted in cost savings because of less time spent in hospital. Unfortunately, the news release seemed to suggest that it was the use of rivaroxaban that resulted in cost savings–rather than the strategy of sending low risk patients home early. The news release failed to state was that over half the patients in the comparison group who got usual care also received rivaroxaban. In other words, the news release implies that rivaroxaban was being compared to other anti-coagulants when what was actually being compared was an early vs. late discharge strategy. Janssen’s misleading news release could result in news stories trumpeting rivaroxaban as a superior blood thinner, when that is not what this study looked at.