Boryung's blood pressure drug Kanarb reduces risk of strokes, vascular events: report

Boryung Pharmaceutical's headquarters in Seoul (Boryung Pharmaceutical)

Boryung Pharmaceutical on Tuesday disclosed clinical trial results that showed its hypertension drug Kanarb is effective in controlling the blood pressure of patients who have experienced a stroke.

By keeping patients’ blood pressure under control, the drug helped reduce the risk of recurrent strokes and major vascular events, it added.

The clinical study was conducted at 27 medical institutions in Korea during a 24-week period, involving 1,035 patients who previously experienced an ischemic stroke or a transient ischemic attack.

According to Boryung, around 70 percent of the patients who received Kanarb achieved the target blood pressure, systolic blood pressure less than 140 millimeters of mercury and diastolic blood pressure less than 90 mm Hg.

The average SBP and DBP of the patients before taking the hypertension drug were 162.3 and 92.2 mm Hg, Boryung said.

During the 24-week period, only 2.7 percent of patients experienced recurrent strokes, and 0.9 percent of the patients experienced other vascular events. The company added there were only six deaths during the clinical study, including three deaths from vascular events, two deaths related to pneumonia and one from an undetermined cause.

The latest clinical trial results have been released in the Journal of Clinical Neurology, published by the Korean Neurological Association.

Kanarb is an angiotensin II receptor blocker, used for the treatment of hypertension and heart failure. Kanarb is the 15th novel drug developed by a drug manufacturer in South Korea.

In 2020, Boryung Pharmaceutical secured more than 100 billion won ($87.1 million) through Kanarb.

By Shim Woo-hyun(ws@heraldcorp.com)