Intravenous Iron in Patients with Systolic Heart Failure and Iron Deficiency to Improve Morbidity & Mortality

The clinical trial is designed as an international, prospective, multi-centre, double-blind, parallel group, randomised, controlled, interventional trial to investigate whether a long-term therapy with i.v. iron (ferric carboxymaltosis) compared to placebo can extend the time-to-first-event of heart failure hospitalisations and cardiovascular (CV) death (in the full population and in the population of patients with TSAT<20%) and reduce the rate of recurrent events of heart failure hospitalisations.

I.v. iron administration in the form of ferric carboxymaltosis (FCM) will be carried out according to the Summary of Product Characteristics (SmPC). Bolus administration (1000 mg) will be followed by an optional administration of 500-1000 mg within the first 4 weeks (up to a total of 2000 mg which is in-label) according to approved dosing rules, followed by administration of 500 mg FCM at every 4 months, except when haemoglobin is > 16.0 g/dL or ferritin is > 800 µg/L.

In the verum group, all patients will receive a saline administration, when no iron is indicated at the time of the visit and according to the values listed above. Patients originally assigned to the placebo group will receive a saline administration at all visits.

In the control group i.v. NaCl at a volume according to the dosing rules for FCM at all visits will be administered in a double-blind manner.