The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved a new type of blood pressure medicine that could become AstraZeneca’s next big product.
Baxfendy is a once-daily pill that can be used with other blood pressure medicines for adults whose blood pressure is not well controlled. The FDA approved it based on a late-stage trial published last summer in the New England Journal of Medicine.
The trial included patients whose blood pressure was hard to control even with multiple medicines. The results showed that two doses of Baxfendy worked better than a placebo to lower blood pressure. The drug was generally safe, with most side effects being mild, such as muscle spasms, dizziness, low blood pressure, or changes in blood sodium and potassium levels.
Baxfendy works differently from other blood pressure medicines. It blocks an enzyme that makes aldosterone, a hormone that raises blood pressure by causing the body to keep water and salt while losing potassium. AstraZeneca bought the company that made Baxfendy, CinCor Pharma, because of this promising approach.
CinCor had originally licensed the drug from Roche in 2019 and went public three years later, raising nearly USD 200 million. AstraZeneca acquired the company in 2023, paying USD 1.3 billion upfront.
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Bryan Williams, a doctor involved in the trial, said that doctors “have been waiting for an innovative medicine like Baxfendy for high blood pressure for many years.
“it’s novel way of lowering blood pressure has the potential to transform clinical practice by targeting a root cause of persistently uncontrolled hypertension,” added Williams, who also serves as chair of medicine at University College London.
Still, Ding believes the Baxfendy approval “should lift another gating factor” and “may be incrementally constructive” for any partnering discussions Mineralys might pursue, since it provides “visibility” into the labeling, pricing and payer access factors for these types of drugs.
Source:
News Room: AstraZeneca
Company: AstraZeneca
