Cardiovascular and renal developments: patent highlights January to June 2006.

Failure of the cardiovascular system is the main reason for mortality in industrialized countries, and is a major cause of chronic morbidity. As most of the numerous ways in which it can fail will manifest in the second half of life and are exacerbated by old age, this situation is not likely to change in the near future unless fundamentally new ways of treating or preventing hypertension, atherosclerosis, myocardial infarction, chronic heart failure and cardiac arrhythmia are found. This prospect keeps the pharmaceutical industry on a constant, intense search for new therapeutic targets, new drugs, and new ways to identify such targets and drugs, as well as monitoring patient responses to drugs. This summary highlights the most interesting developments seen in cardiovascular and renal patents (other than those claiming formulations or combinations of known drugs) published during the first half of 2006.