New Drugs on the Horizon for Hypertension

Despite the current therapeutic options including lifestyle modifications and pharmacotherapy, blood pressure remains inadequately controlled in the majority of hypertensive individuals. Several new medications have been recently Food and Drug Administration approved or are in phase 1 or 2 clinical trials for hypertension. This includes the nonselective endothelin receptor antagonist aprocitentan, which was Food and Drug Administration approved in 2024 for uncontrolled hypertension. Aldosterone synthase inhibitors including baxdrostat, lorundrostat, and vicadrostat are in phase 1 or 2 trials for hypertension or chronic kidney disease with evidence of significant blood pressure lowering. Finally, the novel small-interfering RNA-based zilebesiran targeting angiotensinogen represents a new class of antihypertensive medications with durable blood pressure-lowering dosing only every 3 or 6 months. Each of these medications has unique properties that can potentially contribute to improvement in blood pressure control for individual patients and at the population level. Development of these novel antihypertensives promises a welcome set of new options for the treatment of hypertension.