A novel high blood pressure drug has been approved by the FDA. It is injectable. It may be useful as as an acute hypertensive treatment as drug studies suggest. “Novel” and new drugs may rouse cheers in stockholders but the public continues to be one huge test market with those injured deemed “acceptable risks.” Doctors primarily learn about drugs and medications from the pharmaceutical industry. And the public at times is left in the dark as to what these substances are and what side effects they produce which may cause harm.
For information about dihydropyridine calcium channel blockers read here
About Cleviprex:(from Medical News)
Cleviprex is a novel, investigational drug rationally designed to meet the needs of the acute care practitioner for an intravenous hypertensive agent. It is the first third-generation dihydropyridine calcium channel blocker that acts rapidly and reliably, is vascular- and arterial-selective, and has an ultrashort half-life. Cleviprex recently completed Phase III clinical trials.
Approval was based on clinical studies involving 1,406 people. The most common side effects were headache, nausea and vomiting, the company said.
Abstract
Dihydropyridine calcium antagonists play an important role in the treatment of hypertension and angina pectoris. They lower blood pressure by a well-characterized mechanism of blocking L-type calcium channels in smooth muscle cells. Additionally, there is growing evidence that dihydropyridines also modulate endothelial functions by other mechanisms, since macrovascular endothelial cells do not express L-type calcium channels. A number of studies have demonstrated that dihydropyridine calcium antagonists enhance bioavailability of endothelial nitric oxide (NO). (more)
A Number of Marketed Dihydropyridine Calcium Channel Blockers Have Mineralocorticoid Receptor Antagonist Activity (abstract link)
…our data suggest that, in addition to their calcium channel blocking activity, a number of dihydropyridine calcium channel blockers also have mineralocorticoid receptor antagonist activity at high doses, a finding which may thus prove useful for the design of novel antihypertensive drugs in the future.