Posted by Michael Wonder on 28 Mar 2020
EMA advises continued use of medicines for hypertension, heart or kidney disease during COVID-19 pandemic
27 March 2020 - EMA is aware of recent media reports and publications which question whether some medicines, for instance angiotensin converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors and angiotensin receptor blockers (ARBs, or sartan medicines), could worsen coronavirus disease (COVID-19).
It is important that patients do not interrupt their treatment with ACE inhibitors or ARBs and there is no need to switch to other medicines. There is currently no evidence from clinical or epidemiological studies that establishes a link between ACE inhibitors or ARBs and the worsening of COVID-19. Experts in the treatment of heart and blood pressure disorders, including the European Society of Cardiology, have already issued statements along those lines.
To gather more evidence, EMA is proactively reaching out to researchers working to generate further evidence in epidemiological studies.
