A Perspective on Pharmaceutical Industrial Research on Antihypertensive drugs

Cardiovascular disease is at present the leading cause of deth in the United States and other in dustrilized countries. A major contributing factor of cardiovascular disease is essential hypertension. Untreated, essential hypertension is considered a risk factor for sudden death due to myocardial infarctions, as well as a risk factor for cerebral vascular disease, renal failure and congestive heart failure. During the last decade, significant progress has been made in the basic knowledge of the pathogenesis of hypertension as well as in the development of new antihypertensive drugs.