Efficacy and Safety of Vericiguat for Treatment of Heart Failure: A Systematic Review

Heart failure is a growing global health concern with high mortality and morbidity. Beta-blockers, mineralocorticoid receptor antagonists, and angiotensin-converting-enzyme inhibitors are the treatments of choice for worsening clinical symptoms. In early 2021, the FDA approved a new oral soluble guanylate cyclase stimulator, Vericiguat, for the treatment of chronic heart failure. To evaluate the efficacy and safety of this approved drug, we conducted a systematic review of the available randomized controlled trials (RCTs). A literature search was conducted using PubMed, The Cochrane Library, and Clinicaltrials.gov from inception to June 6, 2022, without any language restriction. The systematic review was conducted in accordance with the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis (PRISMA) guidelines. The quality of the included studies was checked using the Cochrane Risk-of-Bias tool. After a thorough literature search, 7 studies met our pre-defined criteria and were therefore included in this review. Our review suggests that vericiguat was better in preventing all causes of death, cardiovascular death, and hospitalizations due to heart failure irrespective of the atrial fibrillation status of the patients and was even beneficial for patients with NT-proBNP levels up to 8000 pg/ml. The safety of the vericiguat, according to our review, is not up to the standards, especially with a higher dosage of vericiguat. Despite all of this, vericiguat can be a breakthrough in the treatment of heart failure as it has great potential to improve the disease severity.