A new injection for high blood pressure
A new injection that could reduce blood pressure for up to six months at a time is being trialled in the UK. Scientists hope it could replace daily medication for people with hypertension.
Scientists have discovered a new potential treatment for hypertension that could last for six months at a time.
A new injection that could reduce blood pressure for up to six months is being trialled in the UK.
Zilebesiran, the world’s first injection to control blood pressure could replace daily medication for hypertension.
The jab, produced by US-based Alnylan Pharmaceuticals, is designed to be given once every six months. It works by preventing the liver from producing angiotensin, which is a hormone that narrows blood vessels and causes blood pressure to rise.
To show its effectiveness, researchers at Queen Mary University of London recruited more than 100 patients with high blood pressure and gave 80 of them an injection of Zilebesiran. The remaining participants received a placebo.
Early data shows that the participants who were given Zilebesiran experienced a significant drop in systolic blood pressure that lasted up to six months. This drop, the researchers have shown, was consistent over a 24-hour period.
Professor David Webb, who led the trial in Edinburgh, called this a “potentially major development in hypertension,” and said, “there hasn’t been a new class of drug licensed for the treatment of high blood pressure in the last 17 years.”
Phil Pyatt CEO of Blood Pressure UK said: “This is encouraging news for people taking medication for hypertension, who, for whatever reason, find it challenging to comply with their doctor’s instructions to take it every day.”