A new fixed-dose combination for added blood pressure control: telmisartan plus hydrochlorothiazide

Population surveys on hypertension management reveal worrying deficiencies in the awareness and treatment of high blood pressure. Many patients with hypertension will require two or more drugs with complementary mechanisms of action (which generally have additive effects, producing greater blood pressure reductions than either agent alone) to attain the blood pressure goals specified in internationally accepted guidelines. Nevertheless, physicians are often reluctant to prescribe multiple anti-hypertensive drugs due to concerns over side-effects, inconvenient dosing regimens and costs. Fixed-dose formulations combining two agents from different classes in a single tablet should help to allay these concerns. A fixed-dose combination containing telmisartan (an angiotensin II receptor blocker) and hydrochlorothiazide (a thiazide diuretic) has recently been developed. Telmisartan/hydrochlorothiazide provides additional anti-hypertensive efficacy compared with the respective monotherapies in a wide range of patients, including black patients, requires once-daily dosing, is cost-effective, well tolerated and is associated with less potassium depletion than hydrochlorothiazide administered alone.