Results from the VICTOR Phase III clinical trial with vericiguat (Verquvo) in patients with chronic heart failure with reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF) without a recent heart failure event were presented at the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) Congress 2025 and simultaneously published in The Lancet.

Vericiguat when added to guideline-directed medical therapy (GDMT) did not reduce the risk of the primary composite endpoint of heart failure hospitalization or cardiovascular death compared to placebo plus GDMT. Secondary endpoints indicated fewer events of cardiovascular death and all-cause mortality in the vericiguat group compared to placebo on top of GDMT. The overall safety profile of vericiguat in the VICTOR trial was consistent with previous clinical trials.

The positive benefit-risk profile of vericiguat in its approved indication in patients with HFrEF following a recent heart failure event based on the pivotal Phase III VICTORIA trial remains unchanged.

“The VICTOR trial enrolled a very well-treated HFrEF population in a Phase III heart failure trial. 83% of patients were on three or more heart failure therapies and 47.5% of patients had no prior heart failure hospitalization. In this stable patient population, we did see less events in the primary endpoint with vericiguat versus placebo, although this did not reach statistical significance. Secondary endpoints indicated fewer events for vericiguat in cardiovascular death and all-cause mortality compared to the placebo group. Although these results are descriptive, the data on mortality in a well-controlled HFrEF patient population is a positive sign”, said Professor Faiez Zannad, Principal Investigator of VICTOR, cardiologist and clinical pharmacologist, France.

In a pre-specified pooled analysis of VICTORIA and VICTOR with 11,155 HFrEF patients, vericiguat showed a statistically significant risk reduction which was consistent across the primary composite of cardiovascular death or heart failure hospitalization and its components, in a broad spectrum of patients with HFrEF.