Boehringer Ingelheim: Studies show Micardis benefits

Boehringer Ingelheim has announced the publication of results from two trials showing that treatment regimes based on Micardis (telmisartan) can help more patients achieve their blood pressure goals.

Results presented to the scientific meeting of the European Society of Hypertension and the International Society of Hypertension in Berlin revealed that Micardis used in fixed combination with hydrochlorothiazide or free combination with amlodipine can offer powerful and sustained blood pressure control.

The company claims telmisartan is the only angiotensin II receptor blocker that has proven protective cardio and vascular benefits in a broad range of patients at high risk of cardiovascular conditions while also resulting in effective blood pressure lowering.

Professor Thomas Unger, chair of pharmacology and director of the Institute of Pharmacology at the Charite ? Universitatsmedizin Berlin, said that it usually requires more than one antihypertensive drug to optimally control blood pressure in patients.

“These new blood pressure studies now show that combining telmisartan with other antihypertensive treatments – amlodipine and hydrochlorothiazide – that act via different mechanisms, may reduce the risk of heart attack or stroke even further,” he said.

In April 2008, the European Commission granted marketing authorisation for MicardisPlus 80/25 (80mg telmisartan/25mg hydrochlorothiazide) as a treatment for essential hypertension in patients taking both drugs separately at those doses or those whose condition is not controlled by MicardisPlus 80/12.5.