Advancing nonclinical blood pressure assessment: Current practices and future directions in drug development

HESI Global is pleased to share a new publication from its Cardiac Safety Committee, “Advancing nonclinical blood pressure assessment: Current practices and future directions in drug development,” published in Regulatory Toxicology and Pharmacology. The paper highlights how nonclinical models can help identify drug-related blood pressure effects and support safer decision-making in development.

This work matters because even modest changes in blood pressure can have important clinical consequences, yet blood pressure regulation is complex and can be difficult to translate from nonclinical studies to humans. The publication reviews current approaches, outlines translational challenges, and introduces a HESI Global multi-site study showing consistent blood pressure findings across laboratories in the standard telemetered dog model. These findings will be published separately and support the model’s value for evaluating blood pressure liability in drug development.

Read the full publication here: Pugsley et al. 2026. Advancing nonclinical blood pressure assessment: Current practices and future directions in drug development. Regulatory Toxicology and Pharmacology. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.yrtph.2026.106098

Learn more about HESI Global’s Cardiac Safety Committee here: https://hesiglobal.org/cardiac-safety/

Figure 1. An illustration of the complexity of blood pressure (BP) regulation.