Heart failure, AFib and hypertension: current trial activity

Three long-standing cardiovascular conditions, and how much new study activity each is attracting. Studies with a start date since 1 July 2026:

• Hypertension: 335
• Heart failure: 235
• Atrial fibrillation: 128
• Cholesterol and lipids: 42

The lipid figure is the one that tends to surprise people. Cholesterol management affects an enormous number of patients, yet it draws comparatively few new studies — which is roughly what a mature field looks like. When the existing drugs work well and are cheap, the bar for testing something new is high.

Hypertension sits at the other end: common, long-established, and still generating a large volume of studies, many of them about delivery and adherence rather than new molecules.

These categories overlap. A trial in patients with both AFib and heart failure appears in both counts, so adding them would double-count.

Counts taken from the ClinicalTrials.gov API on 7 October 2026, covering studies with a registered start date on or after 1 July 2026. Registry numbers move as records are added and updated, so treat them as a snapshot rather than a fixed figure.