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A daily medication for high blood pressure could be replaced by an injection twice a year, if Queen Mary University and Barts Health NHS Trust succeed in their trail to investigate if an injection-based drug - Zilebesiran - could inhibit the production of a protein called angiotensinogen (AGT). Scientists are to trial a world-first drug to treat high blood pressure that can be given by injection twice a year. Professor Sir Nilesh Samani, medical director, British Heart Foundation, said: "This exciting trial could lead to good news for the millions of people across the UK with high blood pressure, many of whom need to take daily medication to lower their risk of heart attacks and strokes. "The study will determine whether an injection given twice a year lowers blood pressure sufficiently over a prolonged period. "If this proves to be the case, it may provide an alternative to taking daily pills for some patients."

Anglo-Swedish drugmaker AstraZeneca said on Monday (January 9) that it had struck a deal to buy US-based drug developer CinCor Pharma for up to $1.8 billion to increase its stock of heart and kidney drugs. Core to the deal is CinCor's experimental therapy baxdrostat, which is in development to treat conditions including high blood pressure and chronic kidney disease. AstraZeneca aims to combine baxdrostat with its own Farxiga, a diabetes drug whose sales ballooned after it was also shown to benefit patients with heart failure and kidney disease. Farxiga, whose sales jumped by almost 50 per cent during the first nine months of 2022 to reach $3.2 billion, belongs to a highly competitive class of drugs that includes rivals such as Boehringer Ingelheim and Eli Lilly's Jardiance. AstraZeneca gets about a third of its revenue from cancer drugs, but its heart, kidney and diabetes medicines are its second most lucrative business by sales, generating roughly $6.9 billion of the drugmaker's total revenue of more than $33 billion in the first three quarters of 2022.