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Roche’s announcement Monday that it would pay $310 million for rights to a hypertension treatment, zilebesiran, invented by the biotech firm Alnylam is evidence of a renewed interest on the part of large pharmaceutical companies for treatments for cardiovascular disease.

If things go well, Roche could pay Alnylam up to $2.8 billion in total.

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Heart drugs were once the most lucrative category of pharmaceuticals, but they have been eclipsed by treatments for cancer and other diseases as drug firms have struggled to one-up existing treatments for high blood pressure and high cholesterol that are now available as cheap generics.

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