Abu Dhabi approves new hypertension medication; first batch arrives

The Department of Health—Abu Dhabi (DoH)—has granted early access to a groundbreaking medication for patients with pulmonary arterial hypertension, making the emirate the first in the region to offer such treatment.

The new medication, WINREVAIR, can be self-administered by patients or caregivers under medical supervision via subcutaneous injection every three weeks in specified doses.

It helps to reduce vascular narrowing, allowing for improved blood flow and alleviating strain on the cardiovascular system. WINREVAIR is used alongside other standard treatments to reduce mortality risks in low to moderate risk patients.

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It also improves patients' exercise capacity and reduces pulmonary vascular resistance. These outcomes suggest the potential to extend patients' average life expectancy by over ten years when combined with current standard therapies.

The first batch of WINREVAIR, developed by MSD which is a leading global biopharmaceutical company, arrived this month.

Clinical studies have demonstrated that adding WINREVAIR to standard treatment protocols may reduce the risk of fatal and non-fatal clinical worsening events by 84 per cent.

The medication was approved by both the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the European Medicines Agency (EMA). It works by targeting and inhibiting specific signalling pathways that drive the excessive proliferation of cells in the pulmonary blood vessels.