Evaluation of the Pharmacodynamic Effect of the Combination of Sildenafil and Riociguat on Blood Pressure and Other Safety Parameters.

Summary

Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension (PAH) is a severe progressive disease with a high mortality. Although several drugs are available for the treatment of PAH none offer a cure, therefore there is still a high medical need for new treatments. Soluble guanylate cyclase (sGC) is one of the chemicals involved in the pathways controlling vascular tone, which is impaired in patients with PAH. This causes constriction and thickening of the blood vessels wall in the lungs and increase of blood pressure in the lungs. This can lead to the very debilitating symptoms of PAH such as tiredness, shortness of breath on exertion, collapse and often the inability of the patient to perform their daily life activities. Inhalation of Nitric Oxide, which activates sGC is used to treat PAH, but its effect wears off as soon as inhalation stops. Direct stimulation of sGC using this new compound Riociguat may be a new approach for the treatment of PAH. The phosphodiesterase 5 (PDE5)-inhibitor Sildenafil is one of licensed treatments for PAH. The Patent Plus is a double-blind, placebo-controlled safety study, designed to investigate the effect of Riociguat on blood pressure in patients with PAH when given in combination with Sildenafil.

Timeline

Start

2010-08

Primary completion

2012-06

Completion

2013-05

Publications

• Results Galie N, Muller K, Scalise AV, Grunig E. PATENT PLUS: a blinded, randomised and extension study of riociguat plus sildenafil in pulmonary arterial hypertension. Eur Respir J. 2015 May;45(5):1314-22. doi: 10.1183/09031936.00105914. Epub 2015 Feb 5.

Drugs

Indications