Drug does more than lower blood pressure

Friday, March 22nd 2002, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

(ATLANTA, Georgia) - A new study indicates that people with moderately elevated blood pressure who take Cozaar -- generic name losartan -- get benefits beyond a lowering of blood pressure.

In the study, sponsored by Cozaar manufacturer Merck and Co., losartan was compared with a beta blocker -- one of the most commonly used high blood pressure drugs. Those patients receiving Cozaar were 25 percent less likely to suffer a stroke, although a similar reduction in blood pressure was seen in both groups.

Beta blockers now are the preferred initial treatment for hypertension, and patients usually take drugs like Cozaar -- a class known as angiotensin II antagonists -- if beta blockers don't work. Cozaar works by blocking the effects of a hormone.

"We found overall that heart attack, stroke and death from cardiovascular disease was reduced 14 percent with Cozaar," said Dr. Richard Devereux, of the Weill Medical College of Cornell, New York, Presbyterian Hospital. "But the greatest effect was on stroke, which is a particularly devastating complication and seems to be more prevalent than heart attack in this group."

Devereux says about one in five patients with high blood pressure fall into the group helped in the study, but if the benefit is seen in one group, then about the same degree of benefit can be seen in other groups of hypertensive patients.

The study included more than 9,000 patients and was presented at the American College of Cardiology meeting this week in Atlanta, Georgia. It was published in the British medical journal The Lancet.

Devereux does not think, however, that all people with high blood pressure should be switched to Cozaar.

"There are other reasons to be on beta blockers. They can protect against angina and abnormal heart rhythms, so in those patients I wouldn't switch," said Devereux. "But I would think about switching my other patients who have hypertension without other complications."

The study also found that Cozaar was beneficial in patients with diabetes.

"We found two things: Cozaar reduced the proportion of those developing new diabetes and among diabetics, there was a 25 percent reduction in cardiovascular deaths, heart attack and stroke," Devereux said. "There was also a 39 percent reduction in 'all cause' mortality, that is, overall they were less likely to be dead from any cause."

Side effects from Cozaar are similar to those of other high blood pressure drugs, but Cozaar is likely to be more expensive.