An injection which can help patients in hospitals and intensive care units with acute life-threatening hypertension has been made available in the UK for the first time. Nicardipine Solution has been launched by international pharma group AMCo, which specialises in niche medicines.
Nicardipine Solution is already used in hospitals across Europe for a range of conditions from malignant arterial hypertension (very high blood pressure which comes on suddenly and quickly), severe pre-eclampsia (which affects up to five per cent of pregnancies) and post-operative hypertension.
The drug works by relaxing blood vessels and reduces the workload on the heart. This leads to a fall in blood pressure and also helps prevent chest pain and angina by making the heart more effective in pumping blood against less resistance.It was launched at the British Hypertension Society’s Annual Scientific meeting in Edinburgh this week.
John Beighton, Chief Executive of AMCo said: “I am really pleased to be able to introduce this treatment into hospitals in the UK. It gives British health professionals access to the same treatment as their European colleagues when caring for patients with very high blood pressure.”
AMCo also introduced the medicine Nebivolol into the UK this month. Nebivolol is available as a 2.5mg tablet tablet from GPs. It is used for patients suffering from high blood pressure and also for mild and moderate chronic heart failure in people aged 70 years and older.