Clopidogrel Acino

clopidogrel

This is a summary of the European public assessment report (EPAR) for Clopidogrel Acino. It explains how the Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP) assessed the medicine to reach its opinion in favour of granting a marketing authorisation and its recommendations on the conditions of use for Clopidogrel Acino.

What is Clopidogrel Acino?

Clopidogrel Acino is a medicine that contains the active substance clopidogrel. It is available as tablets (75 mg).

Clopidogrel Acino is a ‘generic medicine’. This means that Clopidogrel Acino is similar to a ‘reference medicine’ already authorised in the European Union (EU) called Plavix.

What is Clopidogrel Acino used for?

Clopidogrel Acino is used to prevent problems caused by blood clots in adults who have:

• recently had a myocardial infarction (heart attack). Clopidogrel Acino can be started between a few days and 35 days after the attack;
• recently had an ischaemic stroke (stroke caused by failure of the blood supply to part of the brain). Clopidogrel Acino can be started between seven days and six months after the stroke;
• peripheral arterial disease (problems with blood flow in the arteries);
• a condition known as ‘acute coronary syndrome’, when it should be given with aspirin (another medicine that prevents blood clots). Acute coronary syndrome is a group of heart problems that include heart attacks and unstable angina (a severe type of chest pain). Some of these patients may have had a stent (a short tube) placed in an artery to prevent it from closing up;
• atrial fibrillation (irregular rapid contractions of the upper chambers of the heart), when it should be given with aspirin. It is used in those patients who have at least one risk factor for vascular events such as a heart attack or stroke, cannot take vitamin-K antagonists (other medicines that prevent blood clots) and are at low risk of bleeding.

The medicine can only be obtained with a prescription.

How is Clopidogrel Acino used?

The standard dose of Clopidogrel Acino is one 75 mg tablet once a day. In acute coronary syndrome, treatment generally starts with a loading dose of four 75-mg tablets. This is then followed by the standard 75-mg dose once a day for at least four weeks (in ‘ST-segment-elevation’ myocardial infarction) or for up to 12 months (in unstable angina or ‘non-Q-wave’ myocardial infarction). In acute coronary syndrome and atrial fibrillation, Clopidogrel Acino is used together with aspirin, the dose of which should not be higher than 100 mg.

How does Clopidogrel Acino work?

The active substance in Clopidogrel Acino, clopidogrel, is an inhibitor of platelet aggregation. This means that it helps to prevent blood clots from forming. When the blood clots, this is due to special cells in the blood called platelets aggregating (sticking together). Clopidogrel stops the platelets aggregating by blocking a substance called ADP from attaching to a special receptor on their surface. This stops the platelets becoming ‘sticky’, reducing the risk of a blood clot forming and helping to prevent another heart attack or stroke.

How has Clopidogrel Acino been studied?

Because Clopidogrel Acino is a generic medicine, studies in people have been limited to tests to determine that it is bioequivalent to the reference medicine, Plavix. Two medicines are bioequivalent when they produce the same levels of the active substance in the body.

What are the benefits and risks of Clopidogrel Acino?

Because Clopidogrel Acino is a generic medicine and is bioequivalent to the reference medicine, its benefits and risks are taken as being the same as the reference medicine’s.

Why has Clopidogrel Acino been approved?

The CHMP concluded that, in accordance with EU requirements, Clopidogrel Acino has been shown to have comparable quality and to be bioequivalent to Plavix. Therefore, the CHMP’s view was that, as for Plavix, the benefit outweighs the identified risk. The Committee recommended that Clopidogrel Acino be given marketing authorisation.

Other information about Clopidogrel Acino

The European Commission granted a marketing authorisation valid throughout the EU for Clopidogrel Acino on 28 July 2009. 

For more information about treatment with Clopidogrel Acino, read the package leaflet (also part of the EPAR) or contact your doctor or pharmacist.

This EPAR was last updated on 11/08/2016 .

More detail is available in the summary of product characteristics

Product details

Publication details

Product information

28/01/2016  Clopidogrel Acino -EMEA/H/C/001166 -IB/0018/G

Contents

• Annex I - Summary of product characteristics
• Annex IIA - Manufacturing-authorisation holder responsible for batch release
• Annex IIB - Conditions of the marketing authorisation
• Annex IIIA - Labelling
• Annex IIIB - Package leaflet

Please note that the size of the above document can exceed 50 pages.

You are therefore advised to be selective about which sections or pages you wish to print.

Pharmacotherapeutic group

Antithrombotic agents

Therapeutic indication

Clopidogrel is indicated in adults for the prevention of atherothrombotic events in:

• Patients suffering from myocardial infarction (from a few days until less than 35 days), ischaemic stroke (from 7 days until less than 6 months) or established peripheral arterial disease
• Non-ST segment elevation acute coronary syndrome (unstable angina or non-Q-wave myocardial infarction), including patients undergoing a stent placement following percutaneous coronary intervention, in combination with acetylsalicylic acid (ASA)
• ST segment elevation acute myocardial infarction, in combination with ASA in medically treated patients eligible for thrombolytic therapy

Patients suffering from acute coronary syndrome:

For further information please refer to section 5.1.

Changes since initial authorisation of medicine

Initial marketing-authorisation documents