A new drug called baxdrostat is showing remarkable promise for people living with treatment-resistant high blood pressure and chronic kidney disease.
Early studies suggest the medication not only lowers blood pressure more effectively than standard treatments but may also slow the progression of kidney damage.
The findings, recently published in the Journal of the American Society of Nephrology, come from a stage 2 clinical trial involving nearly 200 participants.
After six months of treatment, patients taking baxdrostat saw their systolic blood pressure—the top number in a blood pressure reading—drop an average of 8.1 mmHg more than those receiving standard care.
This reduction is considered both clinically meaningful and potentially life-saving.
Even more striking was the drug’s effect on kidney health.
Researchers measured levels of a protein called albumin in the urine, a key marker of kidney function. High levels of albumin usually signal worsening kidney disease.
Patients treated with baxdrostat had less than half the urine albumin levels compared to those on standard treatment, suggesting the drug may help preserve kidney function.
Dr. Jamie Dwyer, professor of nephrology and hypertension at University of Utah Health and senior author of the study, explained that while the trial was primarily designed to test blood pressure effects, the kidney findings were an exciting bonus.
“These results give us hope that baxdrostat could help both conditions at once—high blood pressure and kidney disease—which so often go hand in hand,” Dwyer said. Phase III trials are already underway to further confirm these kidney-protective effects.
What makes baxdrostat different is how it works.
Unlike most current drugs, which block the action of certain hormones, baxdrostat targets the root of the problem by reducing production of aldosterone, a hormone that raises blood pressure by increasing salt retention in the body.
Too much aldosterone not only drives blood pressure higher but also damages the kidneys over time. By cutting production of this hormone, baxdrostat offers a new pathway for treatment.
This approach is particularly important for the 25% of patients with treatment-resistant hypertension, whose blood pressure remains dangerously high despite taking at least three different medications.
For these individuals, baxdrostat could be a game changer.
Chronic kidney disease affects about one in seven adults in the United States, and hypertension is the leading cause.
Because kidney damage is often irreversible once it progresses, finding ways to slow or stop decline is a top priority.
If larger trials confirm these early results, baxdrostat could become one of the most significant advances in kidney and blood pressure care in years.
Source: KSR.
