Patent Update: Patent Trends in Antiarrhythmic Agents during 1991–1992

Summary

As a consequence of the widespread use during the past decade of sophisticated voltage clamp techniques that allow identification of specific types of ion channels, there have been a host of potassium channel subtypes identified in cardiac cells [10]. Numerous medicinal chemicals that modulate the various potassium channel subtypes, either through blockade or activation, have been synthesized and studied for their cardiovascular effects and have provided potential therapies for a number of cardiovascular disorders, including cardiac arrhythmias. The pharmacologic control and modulation of cardiac arrhythmias will continue to expand as new chemicals and new channels are discovered and explored.