Benicar better than Cozaar in reducing blood pressure: Study

Oct 1 2010

New study results show that patients treated with Benicar® (olmesartan medoxomil) 40 mg once daily had significantly greater reductions in blood pressure and higher rates of goal attainment than patients receiving Cozaar® (losartan potassium) 100 mg once daily at week 8, according to findings of a new head-to-head study presented today at the late breaker session at the 23rd Scientific Meeting of the International Society of Hypertension (ISH) in Vancouver, Canada. Benicar and Cozaar are two of the leading angiotensin II receptor blockers (ARBs). The study did not evaluate the Cozaar 50 mg BID (twice a day) dose.

The BeniVICTOR study, Benicar Efficacy: New InVestigation In the Comparison of BP reductions beTween Olmesartan and losaRtan in patients with hypertension, met its primary endpoint of mean change from baseline in Seated Diastolic Blood Pressure (SeDBP) at 8 weeks. At week 8, patients treated with Benicar 40 mg achieved reductions of 13.6 mm Hg Seated Systolic Blood Pressure (SeSBP) and 9.7 mm Hg SeDBP from a mean baseline blood pressure of 158.2/101.1 mm Hg. Patients treated with Cozaar 100 mg experienced a smaller mean blood pressure reduction of 9.7/7.1 mm Hg from a baseline of 158.3/101.3 mm Hg. The treatment difference between Benicar 40 mg versus Cozaar 100 mg was 3.9/2.5 mm Hg (P less than or equal to 0.0001).

Further, patients treated with Benicar reported significantly greater goal attainment when compared to patients treated with Cozaar. At week 8, a significantly greater proportion of patients treated with Benicar 40 mg achieved a blood pressure goal of <140/90 mm Hg than patients treated with Cozaar 100 mg (31.6 percent versus 19.5 percent, respectively; P<0.0001).

"Achieving blood pressure control is difficult for many patients so being able to identify which angiotensin II receptor blocker provides superior blood pressure reduction can be very important for physicians," said Dr. Henry Punzi of the Trinity Hypertension and Metabolic Research Institute in Carrollton, Texas. "Many patients come close to achieving goal, but are unable to cross the threshold of controlled blood pressure. For many patients, a reduction of two or three points in their blood pressure is the difference between being able to achieve control or remaining uncontrolled. The results of BeniVICTOR show that Benicar was more effective at reducing blood pressure than Cozaar, which could help bridge the gap for many patients."

High blood pressure can cause permanent changes to blood vessels and the heart that may create serious problems elsewhere in the body. Hypertension is one of the most prevalent conditions in the United States, affecting approximately one in three American adults (about 74.5 million people aged 20 and older) and approximately one billion people worldwide. High blood pressure is often difficult to control, and of those with high blood pressure, approximately 56 percent, do not reach recommended blood pressure levels. The number of people with high blood pressure is expected to reach about 1.6 billion worldwide by 2025.

SOURCE Daiichi Sankyo