Daily tablet keeps hard-to-treat blood pressure down
A new drug trialled at Barts Health has lowered blood pressure for nearly a year in people whose condition hasn’t responded to several medications.
High blood pressure, known clinically as hypertension, is a leading cause of heart disease, stroke and kidney disease. Most people can manage the condition with lifestyle changes and medication, but for some, blood pressure stays high despite taking several treatments every day. This is known as uncontrolled or treatment-resistant hypertension, and it affects many of our patients in north east London.
Lorundrostat is a once-daily tablet being tested in people with this kind of hard-to-treat high blood pressure. The latest results come from the Transform-HTN trial, for which Barts Health was the lead UK site. It followed people who had taken part in an earlier trial called Launch-HTN and continued taking lorundrostat alongside their usual medications, to see whether the benefit would last.
Among the 504 participants included in the analysis, blood pressure remained lower than before treatment after 48 weeks, and more than half (56%) reached a top blood pressure reading of under 130 mmHg, the target recommended in US guidelines. Long-term treatment in Transform-HTN was also well tolerated, with no new safety findings compared with Launch-HTN.
Global chief investigator Dr Manish Saxena, a hypertension specialist at the Barts Health and clinical co-director of the William Harvey Clinical Research Centre at Queen Mary University of London, presented the findings in a late-breaking session at the American Heart Association's Scientific Sessions 2026 in Chicago.
Dr Saxexa said, "Many people live for years with blood pressure that stays high, despite taking several medications every day. These results show that lorundrostat can bring blood pressure down and keep it down, with more than half of participants reaching their target. That's an important step towards a new option for patients who need it most.
“It’s encouraging that a quarter of participants were Black or African American and almost half were women, making the findings relevant to more people worldwide. With one of the most diverse populations in the UK, Barts Health is well placed to help ensure current and future trials reflect the patients who need these treatments most. ”
Lorundrostat, developed by Mineralys Therapeutics, is not yet available to patients outside of the trial. It is currently under review by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), with a decision expected in December 2026. Approval in the UK is required before the drug can be considered for use in the NHS.
For more details on the findings from the Transform-HTN trial, please see the full media release from Mineralys Therapeutics.
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