Forest Laboratories’ hypertension shows benefits in published study

Forest Laboratories has announced the publication of encouraging data from its pivotal phase III study of an investigational fixed-dose combination therapy for hypertension.

Appearing in the latest issue of The Lancet, the research showed how the combination of nebivolol and valsartan demonstrated statistically significant reductions in diastolic and systolic blood pressure compared to either nebivolol or valsartan alone at eight weeks.

This means the new treatment was able to meet its primary and secondary endpoints in the trial, which featured a total of 4,161 hypertension patients.

Data from this trial will help to support Forest Laboratories' efforts to attain US regulatory approval for the new combination therapy.

Dr Thomas Giles, professor of medicine at Tulane University School of Medicine, said: "To our knowledge, this is the first study to assess the efficacy and safety of a fixed-dose combination consisting of a beta-blocker and angiotensin II receptor blocker in hypertensive patients."

This comes after the company also shared developmental data on its new hypertension regimen at the American Society of Hypertension's annual scientific meeting, which took place in New York last month.