Bayer Enrolls INSIGHT Study Patients

German drugmaker Bayer has completed enrollment of more than 7,000 hypertension patients in its International Nifedipine Study Intervention as a Goal in Hypertension Treatment study, designed to provide long-term outcomes data on the safety and efficacy of once-a-day extended release nifedipine. The INSIGHT study, due for completion May 1999, is said to be unique in that it is the first trial to evaluate antihypertensive treatment prospectively in patients with concomitant risk factors.

Study results are expected to demonstrate a superiority of nifedipine once-a-day over diuretics (with 25% less cardiovascular events in the nifedipine group), and are due later in 1999; diuretics and beta blockers are generally thought to have an impact on cardiovascular risking, but fall short in normalizing risk. Side-arms of this study will take place in Spain, Israel, France, Italy and the UK. Nifedipine, the most-prescribed calcium channel blocker, was first introduced in 1975.