Blood Pressure Study Halted Due to Success

Hypertensive patients taking a combination of an ACE inhibitor and a calcium channel blocker are much less likely to experience an MI or stroke than are those on a beta-blocker and diuretic.

Dr. Peter Sever of Imperial College, London, said a trial evaluating Pfizer Inc’s Norvasc (amlodipine) and Solvay’s Aceon (perindopril) had been stopped early because it would have been unethical to continue comparison with AstraZeneca Plc’s Tenormin (atenolol) plus the generic diuretic bendroflumethiazide.

Dr. Sever stated that, "What we have very clearly seen is that old strategy of giving a beta-blocker and a diuretic is considerably inferior when looking at a whole range of cardiovascular events."

Previous clinical trials have given mixed results on the relative benefits of different antihypertensives, with some recent pooled analysis suggesting that newer medicines might offer little advantage. But Sever said this conclusion was due to a failure to properly differentiate between available treatment strategies.

Sever said the clear benefits of the newer treatment seen in the Anglo-Scandinavian Cardiac Outcomes Trial (Ascot) was "excellent news" for people with hypertension. However, precise figures on its effectiveness will not be available until full results of the 19,000-patient study, launched in 1997, have been analyzed.

Another part of the Ascot study was already stopped prematurely in October 2002 after it showed that hypertensive patients benefited from taking Lipitor whether or not they had high cholesterol.

Pfizer has combined Norvasc and Lipitor into a new two-in-one pill called Caduet, which is the first dual therapy for both hypertension and high cholesterol.

Preliminary data will be released at the annual meeting of the American College of Cardiology in March and publish a paper in The Lancet later in 2005.