Study links Blood pressure drugs to cancer

June 15th, 2010 - 7:57 pm ICT by Aishwarya Bhatt  

New York, Jun 15 (THAINDIAN NEWS) A new study by Lancet Oncology medical journal says there is a modest increased risk of cancer in people who use certain classes of blood pressure drugs.

The research results were published online on Sunday and the results said that due to limited data on the research, it is impossible to currently calculate the exact risk of cancer in the drugs.

The group of drugs identified with cancer includes high-class drugs manufactured by companies like Boehringer Ingelheim GmbH, Merck & Co. Novartis AG. The drugs include Cozaar from Merck & Co., Diovan from Novartis AG and Micardis from Boerhinger Ingelheim. These types of drugs are called angiotensin-receptor blockers (ARB’s). The drugs are used to treat heart failure, blood pressure and reduction of cardiovascular disease.

However some of the manufacturers of these drugs have questioned the study. Boerhinger Ingelheim says they have undertaken extensive and comprehensive internal safety data analysis on the drugs and that data available to the company does not support the study at all. The company said that they have carried out clinical trials in more than 50,000 patients and they say the safety data available points to positive profile in the patients.

Sales of ARB’s worldwide are estimated at over $100 billion annually and last year’s figures showed that Novartis’s Diovan sold more than $6billion.

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