Zilebesiran drug given 2 injections a year against high blood pressure

There high pressure, the so-called “silent killer”, represents a public health problem of primary importance especially due to the cardiovascular complications it induces in the long term. It is estimated that he suffers from it approximately 18% of Italians, with a prevalence that tends to increase with age until it exceeds 50% of the over-74 population. There pharmacological therapy represents the first-line treatment for hypertension, but poor adherence to treatment constitutes a significant obstacle to the control of this medical condition. In fact, approximately 50% of patients discontinue therapy within one year. In this panorama, the arrival of Zilebesiran, a new gene therapy-based drug, represents a potential breakthrough in the treatment of hypertension. His secret? It literally demands only two injections a year.

I study

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The results of the KARDIA-2 study, presented at the American College of Cardiology congress, open up new hope for patients who cannot keep their high blood pressure under control with traditional therapies. “The new molecule interferes with messenger RNA blocking the production of in the liver angiotensinogena protein that is at the top of the chain of organic processes that ultimately cause the rise in blood pressure values”, he explains to AGI Pasquale Perrone Filardi, President of the Italian Society of Cardiology and Director of the school of specialization in diseases of the cardiovascular system at the Federico II University of Naples. “By reducing the availability of this protein in the blood, the pressure also drops.”

how the drug Zilebesiran works

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Zilebesiran represents an innovation in the field of antihypertensive therapy. It is a drug to be administered via a simple subcutaneous injection, similar to that used for insulin. Its peculiarity is the duration of action: a single injection can in fact be effective for 3 or even 6 months. A new therapeutic approach that offers significant advantages compared to traditional therapies. First of all, the simplicity of administration makes the therapy easier to follow, reducing the risk of errors or forgetfulness on the part of the patient. Furthermore, its pharmacokinetics allows for reduce the number of injections neededimproving patients’ compliance and quality of life.

when it arrives?

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The effectiveness of Zilebesiran was demonstrated by the KARDIA-2 study, a double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trial conducted on 672 hypertensive patients. The results, presented at the American College of Cardiology conference, highlighted a significant reduction in systolic blood pressure in patients treated with the drug, in addition to usual therapies. It also appears that Zilebesiran is also very safe, with generally mild and transient side effects.

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Zilebesiran, however, it is still in development and will not be available for marketing for several years. Further studies will be necessary to confirm the results obtained and to evaluate their safety and efficacy profile long-term. For now, however, there is reason to be optimistic: “The patients enrolled, at the time of the first administration, had blood pressure values, on average, of 143 mm Hg and presented an average reduction up to 18 mm Hg of systolic blood pressure which, in many cases, was maintained stable for up to 6 months“, added Perrone Filardi. “These results open the way to the revolution of biological drugs also in the world of hypertension which needed them most given theinsufficient adhesion lifelong drug-taking “.