The United Arab Emirates has become the first country in the world to approve a new medication for high blood pressure, offering hope to millions of patients whose condition has not improved with existing treatments. The green light from the Emirates Drug Establishment marks a significant advance against a disease that affects more than a third of adults in the region and is a leading cause of heart attacks, strokes and kidney failure.
The drug, called Baxfendy, works by blocking the production of aldosterone, a hormone that causes the body to retain salt and water. Dr Salam Raad Bahjat Kashmoola, a family medicine consultant at Burjeel Medical City in Abu Dhabi, explained that by preventing aldosterone formation, the drug allows the body to eliminate excess fluid, relax blood vessels and lower blood pressure. This is a fundamental shift from standard treatments, which typically relax blood vessels, slow the heart or block aldosterone receptors after the hormone has already been produced. “This breakthrough offers an important new option for patients whose hypertension remains dangerously elevated despite multiple medications,” Dr Kashmoola said. He noted that response rates range from 40 to 70 percent in patients who have not responded to other therapies.
The approval comes as data shows hypertension is rising sharply in the UAE. A 2025 study in the Journal of Hypertension found that 35.2 percent of Emiratis in Abu Dhabi had high blood pressure, up from 24.5 percent a decade earlier. A separate 2019 survey in Dubai reported that 38 percent of men and 16 percent of women had the condition. Across the Gulf region, prevalence rates are even higher in Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar and Oman. Dr Fatima Al Kaabi, director general of the Emirates Drug Establishment, said the approval is “another significant step towards enabling advanced medical solutions that precisely target disease pathways, particularly in cases that do not respond to traditional options.”
AstraZeneca, the company behind Baxfendy, reported in December that the drug achieved “statistically significant and clinically meaningful” reductions in systolic blood pressure in patients with resistant or uncontrolled hypertension, even among those already taking multiple other medications. Side effects are typically mild. The company added that the drug has been accepted for priority review by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for adults whose other medications have failed. Globally, 1.4 billion people have hypertension, and in the United States, blood pressure remains uncontrolled in about half of patients on multiple drugs.
Dr Bharat Pankhania, an independent public health doctor in the UK, described the approach as “a step in the right direction” but emphasized that lifestyle changes remain the foundation of blood pressure control. “It’s really important to control your blood pressure by yourself,” he said. “If you keep your weight down, reduce your salt intake, and exercise, that maintains and controls blood pressure without the need for medication.” For patients who cannot achieve control through lifestyle alone, Baxfendy represents a new and targeted tool. With further regulatory reviews underway in the United States and growing interest across the Gulf, the drug may soon reach many more patients whose hypertension has remained stubbornly out of reach.