Packer says this is the first placebo-controlled study in acute heart failure to show a clinical benefit.

FORBES: Open Questions For Heart Failure Drugs

The abstract notes that one of the deaths was due to acute heart failure at the 10mg dose.

FORBES: Pfizer's Key Drug Walks A Tightrope

Acute heart failure results in more than 3 million hospitalizations a year.

FORBES: Magazine Article

Now the idea is to use it to combat acute heart failure.

FORBES: ACC Conference

Patients are treated for acute heart failure as many as 3 million times per year in the U.S. All should be treated initially with drugs called diuretics.

FORBES: Magazine Article

The two deaths that appear to be the greater source of concern in the study were one patient with acute heart failure and another with respiratory failure.

FORBES: Pfizer's Key Drug Walks A Tightrope

It rose to fame after it was approved based on a small study showing it appeared to help symptoms of patients reporting to the hospital with acute heart failure symptoms.

FORBES: AHA 2010

But Sackner-Bernstein says that the data seem to support the view that drugs that help acute heart failure symptoms in the short term can do harm in the long term.

FORBES: Magazine Article

In a statement, Jonathan Sackner-Bernstein, a New York cardiologist who co-authored the papers that warned of Natrecor's alleged safety risks, wrote that the results provide hope that there will be new therapies for acute heart failure.

FORBES: Magazine Article

Abbott is also presenting results today of Simdax, an intravenous heart failure treatment, showing that the drug significantly improved the prognosis of patients with acute decompensated heart failure.

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Three million hospitalizations occur each year because of the most acute form of congestive heart failure.

FORBES: Magazine Article