News

Obese people with pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) are less likely than patients of normal weight to die while hospitalized, finds a study examining the so-called “obesity paradox.” The study, “Relation Between Obesity and Survival in Patients Hospitalized for Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension (from a Nationwide Inpatient Sample Database 2003 to…

The exercise capacity of people with scleroderma who have yet to develop pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) diminishes over time, according to an Austrian study. Their lung function during exercise also deteriorates little by little, researchers at the Medical University of Graz reported. The findings raise the question of whether PAH treatment…

New York’s Mount Sinai and Theragene Pharmaceuticals have joined efforts to move a novel investigational aerosol-delivered gene therapy to treat pulmonary hypertension (PH) into a clinical development program. The new therapy, if approved, will be the first to reverse the tissue damage caused by PH. Clinical trials should begin in…

Arena Pharmaceuticals has announced positive results for ralinepag (APD811), an investigational prostacyclin receptor agonist being investigated in a Phase 2 trial to treat pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH). Ralinepag is an oral drug that targets the prostacyclin pathway. The drug was developed for the treatment of PAH, due to its action on…

Savara’s inhaled sodium nitrite therapy Aironite lowered blood pressure in the upper and lower heart chambers and pulmonary artery of pulmonary hypertension patients, according to an update of a Phase 2 clinical trial. The most improvement occurred in PH patients with a condition known as heart failure with preserved ejection…

Results of a Phase 1 clinical study in healthy volunteers evaluating different formulations of Arena Pharmaceuticals’ prostacyclin receptor agonist, ralinepag, for the treatment of pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH), showed the drug’s extended release (XR) formulation can achieve a similar body distribution profile as its immediate release (IR) capsule formulations, but with…

Elevated levels of a protein called adipsin, produced by adipose or fat tissue, was found to be associated with an increased risk of pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) and associated cardiovascular deregulation in patients with systemic sclerosis (SSc). The findings were reported in a report titled “Elevated Adipsin Levels are…

SteadyMed Therapeutics submitted a new drug application (NDA) to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for Trevyent (treprostinil injection) in the treatment of pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH), SteadyMed’s partner, Cardiome Pharma, recently announced. Trevyent is a drug-device combination that…

Bayer has launched a Phase 4 clinical trial called REPLACE to evaluate Adempas (riociguat) in patients with pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) who do not respond properly to treatment with certain inhibitors such as Revatio (sildenafil) or Adcirca (tadalafil). The study is also sponsored by Merck, and is expected to enroll…

Pulmonary hypertension (PH) in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) was associated with higher mortality rates after bilateral lung transplantation (transplantation of both lungs), but not after single lung transplantation (LTx), according to a new study of the United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS) database. The study, “…

The lung functioning of pulmonary hypertension patients treated with Bayer’s Adempas improved by 50 percent over a median of six years and stabilized in another 45 percent, according to a Phase 2 clinical trial. Those findings and others indicate that Adempas is a good long-term therapy for pulmonary…

High blood pressure in the right artery makes a person with pulmonary arterial hypertension almost 2 1/2 times more likely to die than a patient with lower pressure, according to a study focusing on how doctors can use echocardiograms to predict poor PAH prognosis. Other echocardiogram measurements that can signal poor outcome…