napsagatran and efegatran

In addition to its pivotal role in blood coagulation, thrombin is one of the most important agonists for platelet recruitment and aggregation. Thrombin inhibitors impede thrombin-induced platelet aggregation but have no effect on aggregation induced by other agonists. A review is presented of selective thrombin inhibitors now in clinical investigation, some of which are also orally active.

Topics: Administration, Oral; Adult; Animals; Antithrombins; Arginine; Blood Platelets; Boron Compounds; Clinical Trials as Topic; Dogs; Drug Evaluation, Preclinical; Glycine; Hirudin Therapy; Hirudins; Humans; Naphthalenes; Oligopeptides; Peptide Fragments; Pipecolic Acids; Piperidines; Recombinant Proteins; Sulfonamides; Thrombin