In-depth report on antihypertensive drugs: “Silent killer” gives rise to a huge market (1)

I. The population of Chinese patients with hypertension is huge, and the capacity of the antihypertensive drug market is large

1.1 The number of Chinese patients with hypertension is large, of which the complications are quite harmful

According to data of the World Health Statistics 2012 issued by the World Health Organization, one-third of global adults have hypertension, and the prevalence of hypertension does not look good in China.

Hypertension is the most common chronic non-infectious disease and the most dangerous factor of cardiovascular diseases (CVD), and causes complications of heart, brain and kidney, etc. Hypertension complications are a leading cause of death. In 2010, there were 2.043 million cases of death in total from hypertension, accounting for 24.6% of all the death cases, including 1.154 million cases of males and 889 thousand cases of females. The total expenditure on health of China was RMB 3.1869 trillion, wherein, the direct economic burden of hypertension accounted for 6.61%, according to 2013 statistics.

China conducted 4 nationwide hypertension sample surveys separately in 1958~1959, 1979~1980, 1991, and 2002, and the prevalence of population aged above 15 was separately 5.1%, 7.7%, 13.6% and 17.6%, with a rising trend in general. According to the 2012 report on Chinese nutrition and chronic disease issued by the State Council Information Office on June 30, 2015, the prevalence of hypertension of Chinese residents aged 18 and above was 25.2%, and the number of relevant patients was 270 million as calculated according to the sixth nationwide census data in 2010.

Chart 5 Proportions of major diseases causing death of Chinese rural residents in 2014

Chart 6 Proportions of major diseases causing death of Chinese urban residents in 2014

Data source: Report on Cardiovascular Diseases in China 2015, Fortune Securities

1.2 Antihypertensive compound preparations are the development trend

Hypertension is a chronic disease of which the patients need to control the blood pressure by long-term medication. The development stages of hypertension drugs include: diuretics launched in 1960s, β-receptor blockers in 1970s, calcium channel antagonists and ACE inhibitors launched in 1980s, and the angiotensin II receptor blockers with a higher specificity developed in 1990s. Thereafter, the U.S. FDA has approved the marketing of many preparations and compound preparations which become first-line drugs for hypertension treatment.

Chart 7 Development history of global hypertension drugs

Data source: Chyxx.com, Fortune Securities

Antihypertensive drugs of different types have different characteristics and respective advantages and disadvantages due to different mechanisms of action and action targets. Appropriate antihypertensive drugs shall be selected for treatment according to realities of patients. Most patients will use the combination therapy if a kind of drug fails to reach the therapeutic effect.

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