Overview of clinical use and side effect profile of valsartan in Chinese hypertensive patients

Abstract

We reviewed the Chinese and English literature for the efficacy and safety data of valsartan monotherapy or combination therapy in Chinese hypertensive patients. According to the data of ten randomized controlled trials, valsartan monotherapy was as efficacious as another angiotensin receptor blocker or other classes of antihypertensive drugs, excepting the slightly inferior diastolic blood pressure-lowering effect in comparison with calcium channel blockers. According to the data of six randomized controlled trials, valsartan combination, with hydrochlorothiazide, amlodipine, or nifedipine gastrointestinal therapeutic system, was more efficacious than monotherapy of valsartan, amlodipine, or nifedipine gastrointestinal therapeutic system. According to these trials, valsartan had an acceptable tolerability, regardless of whether it was used as monotherapy or in combination therapy. Nonetheless, several rare side effects have been reported, indicating that it should still be used with caution. This is of particular importance given that there are millions of hypertensive patients, worldwide, currently exposed to the drug.

Keywords:

• angiotensin receptor blocker
• valsartan
• hypertension
• blood pressure
• efficacy
• side effect

Acknowledgments

The authors were financially supported by grants from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (30871360, 30871081, 81170245, and 81270373); the Ministry of Science and Technology (a grant for China–European Union collaborations [1012]); the Ministry of Education (NCET-09-0544), Beijing, People’s Republic of China; the Shanghai Commissions of Science and Technology (11QH1402000) and Education (the “Dawn” project 08SG20); the Shanghai Bureau of Health (XBR2011004 and 20101051); and Shanghai Jiaotong University School of Medicine (a grant of Distinguished Young Investigators to Yan Li).

Disclosure

Dr Wang reports receiving lecture and consulting fees from Boehringer-Ingelheim, MSD, Novartis, Omron, Pfizer, Servier, and Takeda. The authors report no other conflicts of interest in this work.