Bayer HealthCare’s hypertension drug Adempas shows long-term efficacy

Bayer HealthCare has announced new results from long-term studies that illustrate the sustained safety and efficacy of its hypertension drug Adempas.

Results from the open-label extension studies CHEST-2 and PATENT-2 has shown the riociguat-based therapy can benefit patients with chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension (CTEPH) and pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) for at least two years.

Improvements in exercise capacity and overall function that were observed in the pivotal phase III studies CHEST-1 and PATENT-1 were shown to be sustained over the longer study period, while the drug was also well-tolerated.

Adempas is the first member of a novel class of compounds that functions by targeting a key molecular mechanism underlying pulmonary hypertension.

Principal investigator Professor Ardeschir Ghofrani at the University Hospital of Giessen and Marburg said the positive findings "contribute to the growing evidence of riociguat as an effective and well-tolerated long-term treatment for two of the five types of pulmonary hypertension".

The drug is one of five recently-launched Bayer products – alongside Xarelto, Eylea, Stivarga and Xofigo – that are expected to act as key drivers of growth for the company in the coming years.