A report from the American Society of Hypertension 28th Annual Scientific Meeting and Exposition (May 15-18, 2013 - San Francisco, California, USA).

A wide selection of antihypertensive drugs are currently available for managing hypertension, with distinct advantages and disadvantages in selected patient populations. However, many patients require combination approaches for effective control of blood pressure, and new drugs are required for reaching target blood pressure values in difficult-to-treat subjects. Indeed, initial use of combination therapies more effectively lowered blood pressure, resulting in a further decreased risk of stroke compared to antihypertensive monotherapy (Yu, J. et al., Abst PO-13). Nevertheless, novel drugs and new fixed-drug combinations are being developed, as reported in the following report from this year's American Society of Hypertension meeting. As exemplified by a comparison of newer versus older antihypertensive drugs in Sub-Saharan African countries that demonstrated the superiority of valsartan/amlodipine versus bisoprolol/hydrochlorothiazide (M'Buyamba-Kabangu, J.R. et al., Abst PO-86), newer drugs are beating the efficacy of older agents, and drugs currently in development may eventually demonstrate greater benefits that drugs considered new today. Research continues, as the morbidity and mortality associated with hypertension is better recognized as a threat in aging populations worldwide.