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Antihypertensive therapies

Nature Reviews Drug Discovery volume 6, pages 597–598 (2007)Cite this article

Not for the faint of heart

Patients with a blood-pressure reading of 140/90 mmHg (systolic/diastolic pressure) are typically regarded as having high blood pressure as defined in the most recent guidelines1. From a physiological perspective, the regulation of blood pressure is a complicated process involving different biological systems and a number of feedback systems, including the nervous system, hormones, control of body fluid and regulators within the vessels themselves. In 90–95% of patients with high blood pressure the cause is unknown, whereas the remaining 5-10% may have secondary hypertension related to congenital heart defects, certain cancers or kidney abnormalities.

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Figure 1: Most prescribed classes of hypertensives (US).

References

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Richard E. T. Smith, Ph.D. and Mona Ashiya, Ph.D. are biotech analysts at JP Morgan Securities, 277 Park Avenue, New York, 10172 USA.,

    Richard E. T. Smith & Mona Ashiya

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  1. Richard E. T. Smith
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  2. Mona Ashiya
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Correspondence to Richard E. T. Smith.

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Competing interests

JPMorgan has an investment banking relationship with Novartis, Pfizer, Gilead, Sanofi, Glaxo, Merck JPMorgan has a beneficial ownership of 1% or more in Sanofi securities.

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Smith, R., Ashiya, M. Antihypertensive therapies. Nat Rev Drug Discov 6, 597–598 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrd2354

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