This title appears to be confusing based on a comment: Selatogrel has nothing to do with epinephrine from a pharmacological standpoint. It acts more like a super potent quick acting (and deactivating), less blunt aspirin, an anti-platelet / anti clotting drug. The comparison to epipen is just the physical delivery.
Epinephrine is not used for heart attacks (MI) directly, but can be used for cardiac arrest.
I didn't find it confusing. The headline had me thinking "a pen that instantly delivers a life saving drug in the event of a heart attack". The EpiPen is a point of comparison most people are familiar with. The name of the actual drug is even right there in the title (Selatogrel)
It seems like it's maybe obvious what they were getting across to medical layman like you and me. Seems like it's less obvious to people that are a bit more in the know on medical jargon.
The opposite. Those, "in the know", know that selatogrel is an anti-platelet medication even if they haven't heard of it specifically as there is standardization to naming of pharmaceuticals (the -grel in this case).
The thing about things that "are obvious" is that they are only that way to a subset of individuals. There were evidently medical laymen that were confused.
Ah, well I guess it just comes down to one's ability to read between lines, I guess. More specifically, the ability to read for the writer's intent rather than what is plainly there. I was just trying to come up for a nicer explanation to people that seem to know a lot more about medicine and medical terms than me being so confused by the title.
Ok? As stated, other comments already had exposed there was confusion.
> The name of the actual drug is even right there in the title (Selatogrel)
Many non-experts are aware of the general practice of drug companies patenting "repurposed drugs" or that the same medications are marketed under different names for different indications (eg Ozempic, Wegovy and Rybelsus are all the same medication).
I wouldn't expect most non-experts to immediately know that selatogrel is a generic and not a brand name, especially when it is being said in the same sentence as a brand name. It is quite forgivable to assume it might be an alternative trade name for an epi-pen.
Anyway there are better comparisons to make if you're just trying to convey the concept of instantaneous life saving, many examples of which do not add a confounding additional pharmaceutical to draw comparisons from.
"Selatogrel: The Life Raft for Heart Attack Emergencies" was the chat-gpt recommended metaphor for avoiding pharmaceutical conflation and confusion with EpiPen.
It's basic, but then we wouldn't be discussing why Selatogrel isn't an EpiPen if the writer had considered it..
When I posted the article on HN I put EpiPen in quotes to make it less click-baity; HN's software removed the quotes, thus making it both confusing and click-baity. I tried....
Epinephrine does constrict small vessels, but I think it dialates the larger ones. Perhaps there would be some benefit there. Although an increased heart rate would be very bad if the dilation and increased BP wasn't able to put enough blood past the restriction.
Epinephrine is not used for heart attacks (MI) directly, but can be used for cardiac arrest.