ESC Congress 2025 Hot Line & Late-Breaking Science Collection

  • Published:  08 August 2025
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ESC Congress 2025 Hot Line & Late-Breaking Science Collection

  • Published:  08 August 2025
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About the episode

ESC Congress 2025 - Vericiguat did not reduce the risk of cardiovascular mortality and hospitalization in heart failure with reduced ejection fraction, fewer cardiovascular deaths and all-cause deaths were observed.

Host, Dr Harriette Van Spall (McMaster University, CA) is joined on-site at ESC Congress 2025 in Madrid by Dr Faiez Zannad (University of Lorraine, FR) to discuss pivotal results from the VICTOR (NCT05093933) trial.

The VICTOR programme assessed vericiguat (MK-1242) safety and efficacy in 6105 heart failure with reduced ejection fraction patients, encompassing both acute decompensated and chronic stable populations. The trials compared three vericiguat dosing regimens (2.5, 5.0, and 10.0 mg once daily) against placebo, measuring time to first occurrence of the composite primary endpoint of cardiovascular death or heart failure hospitalisation.

Findings showed that over 18.5 months follow-up, the primary outcome event of cardiovascular death or HF hospitalization had occurred in 18% of patients in the vericiguat group, and 19.1% of patients on the placebo group. Although vericiguat did not improve the primary composite endpoint, there were fewer cardiovascular deaths and all-cause deaths, supporting the use of the drug in ambulatory patients with HFrEF in addition to contemporary therapies.

Recorded onsite at ESC Congress 2025 in Madrid.

Editors: Jordan Rance and Yazmin Sadik.
Videographers: Mike Knight, Dan Brent, Oliver Miles, Tom Green, David-Ben-Harosh.

Support: This is an independent interview produced by Radcliffe Cardiology. 

Overview

Dive into our coverage of ESC Congress 2025 for groundbreaking trial results and discussions with expert faculty.

  • Watch our View From the Thoraxcenter series for practice-focused reviews of the most anticipated trials from interventional experts, Prof Nicolas Van Mieghem and Dr Joost Daemen.
  • Watch our Wrap-Up series led by Dr Mirvat Alasnag summarising the key take-aways from each day of the congress.
  • For clinical trial data from principal investigators, keep up with Dr Harriette Van Spall's Late-Breaker Discussion series.
  • Our concise, accessible Expert Interviews will focus on the current data and it's impact on clinical practice.
  • Don't miss the Highlights series to stay ahead of the curve in each field.
  • In the Journal Discussions series, authors of ECR Journal explore their special focuses in depth.
     

More from this programme

Faculty Biographies

Faiez Zannad

Faiez Zannad

Professor of Therapeutics and Cardiology, Head of CIC

Prof Faiez Zannad is Professor of Therapeutics & Cardiology and Head of the Division of Heart Failure, Hypertension and Preventive Cardiology for the department of Cardiovascular Disease of the Academic Hospital (CHU) in Nancy and the Director of the Clinical Investigation Centre (Inserm-CHU).

Prof Zannad is currently the Chairman of the ESC Working group on Pharmacology and Drug Therapy as well as a Boardmember of the ESC Heart Failure Association. He is Past-President of the French Society of Hypertension. 

Prof Zannad is Co-Editor-in-Chief for Fundamental and Clinical Pharmacology, the official journal of the European Pharmacology Societies Federation (EUPHAR). He chairs and organises annual international meetings on CardioVascular Clinical Trials (CVCT) and on Biomarkers in Heart Failure.

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Harriette Van Spall

Harriette Van Spall

Associate Professor of Medicine, Director of E-Health and Virtual Care

Dr Harriette Van Spall is an Associate Professor of Medicine and cardiologist and serves as Director of E-Health at McMaster University, Canada. She completed her medical and postgraduate clinical training at the University of Toronto and earned a Master of Public Health degree at Harvard University, US. Dr Van Spall is a Canadian Institutes of Health Research-funded clinical trialist and researcher with a focus on heart failure, health services, and health disparities.

She has garnered more than $4 million in research funding, has won several research awards, and has published her work in high-impact medical journals. She is an invited speaker, media correspondent, and editorial board member active in peer review at several high-impact medications journals and grant funding agencies, including Canadian Institutes of Health Research and Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada.

Dr Van Spall is an Editorial Board…

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Zaur Gasimov
2months
In Victor trial hospitalization rate in pts on Vericiquat was not lower than on placebo but at the same time all cause mortality was lower on vericiquat.Data from previous trials demonstrated that every next hospitalization in pts with heart failue increase mortality.In Victor trial it is look different,Does it mean that in Victor trial because of range of NT pro-BNP - 600-6000pg distinquish risk related to this specific population has been observed.Or uncertain criteria for hospitalization were implemented?
Zaur Gasimov
2months
In Victor trial hospitalization rate in pts on Vericiquat was not lower than on placebo but at the same time all cause mortality was lower on vericiquat.Data from previous trials demonstrated that every next hospitalization in pts with heart failue increase mortality.In Victor trial it is look different,Does it mean that in Victor trial because of range of NT pro-BNP - 600-6000pg distinquish risk related to this specific population has been observed.Or uncertain criteria fo