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Blood Pressure
New Hypertension Treatment Shows Promise
Novartis AG's experimental blood pressure pill aliskiren appears to work well when added to other anti-hypertensive medicines. Results of a small Phase II trial presented at the European Society of Cardiology congress set an encouraging precedent for late-stage study findings, which the Swiss healthcare group is expected to unveil in two weeks. If successful, industry analysts believe aliskiren, or SPP 100 as it is also known, could be a multibillion-dollar-a-year seller, rivaling established ACE and ARB inhibitors marketed by Novartis and other big manufacturers.
The medicine is the first in a new class of medicines called renin inhibitors, which act at the initial step in the biochemical cascade that controls blood pressure. One key component of the new drug's success will be how well it works with other medicines, since this will allow doctors to tailor drug cocktails to ensure optimal blood pressure control.
Heart doctors got a first glimpse of the drug's potential from the 23-study, which showed aliskiren on its own resulted in a significant fall in blood pressure after 6 weeks while adding a diuretic produced a further significant extra reduction. There were no serious side effects when the medicine was given alone or in combination.
Novartis has said that it plans to file the drug for approval with regulatory authorities in early 2006, suggesting a market launch could be possible in 2007. It is also performing tests to prove that aliskiren helps protect the heart and kidneys from long-term damage as a result of high-blood pressure.
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