A NEW drug that lowers heart rate and reduces chest pains for heart patients as effectively as standard drugs, but with fewer side effects, was launched here on Tuesday.

Ivabradine promises the greatest benefit to about a third of heart patients who need medication to relieve their chest pains, but for whom standard drugs do not work or cannot be used. About 4 per cent of the population here, or about 100,000 people, suffer from intermittent episodes of chest pains that usually stem from clogged arteries, known as angina.

Many of them are usually given a type of standard drugs known as beta blockers, which slow down heart rate and eases the pains.But beta blockers do not work, or are not suitable, for about a third of patients. Asthmatics, for example, cannot use beta blockers as they can cause breathlessness.