Daily medication pill praised for advancement in blood pressure management, offering possibility to benefit 10 million individuals within the UK.

In a significant development for cardiovascular care, a new daily blood pressure medication called Baxdrostat, developed by AstraZeneca, is being hailed as a potential game-changer. The global BaxHTN trial, led by Professor Bryan Williams of UCL, has found that this novel drug can help reduce blood pressure levels dramatically.

The BaxHTN trial, which included almost 800 patients from 214 clinics worldwide, aimed to investigate the effectiveness of Baxdrostat in managing high blood pressure. The trial found that blood pressure levels reduced "spectacularly" in patients on Baxdrostat.

Aldosterone, a hormone that plays a "really important role" in the development of hard-to-control blood pressure, is the primary target of Baxdrostat. The drug works by blocking an enzyme responsible for producing aldosterone, thereby reducing the hormone's levels in the body. This, in turn, helps to lower blood pressure.

Sharon Barr, executive vice president of biopharmaceuticals R&D at AstraZeneca, believes that Baxdrostat has the potential to tackle one of the toughest challenges in cardiovascular care. By inhibiting the production of aldosterone, blood pressure can be reduced "spectacularly", offering hope for millions of people worldwide.

The findings suggest that Baxdrostat could potentially help treat as many as 10 million people in the UK and up to half a billion worldwide. High blood pressure affects 1.3 billion people globally and is the most important preventable cause of premature death, primarily from heart disease, stroke, kidney disease, and increasingly implicated in dementia. In the UK, the estimated number of people with high blood pressure is 14 million.

The clinical trial for Baxdrostat was conducted by a research group led by University of Utah Health in a Phase II study, with AstraZeneca developing the drug. After 12 weeks, patients taking Baxdrostat saw their blood pressure fall by around 9-10 mmHg. About four in 10 patients on Baxdrostat reached healthy blood pressure levels, compared to fewer than two in 10 in the placebo group.

AstraZeneca hopes to file Baxdrostat with medicine regulators this year, and plans to advance regulatory filings for Baxdrostat and rapidly progress a clinical development programme across indications where aldosterone plays a key role, including chronic kidney disease and heart failure prevention.

For a number of years, the sense was that there was no need to develop more drugs for treating high blood pressure because we had enough drugs. However, it is now understood that the drugs currently available are not yet achieving the kind of control rates that are desired. Targeting aldosterone could potentially control blood pressure more effectively, making Baxdrostat a promising addition to the arsenal of treatments for high blood pressure.

The findings regarding Baxdrostat were published in the New England Journal of Medicine and presented at the European Society of Cardiology Congress in Madrid. As we wait for regulatory approval, the promise of Baxdrostat offers hope for millions of people worldwide who are struggling with high blood pressure.