Angiotensin II receptor antagonists (AIIRAs) represent a major advance in the treatment of cardiovascular disease. This new therapeutic class appears to combine a placebo-like tolerability profile with proven antihypertensive efficacy. Recently, AIIRAs have also shown encouraging results in the treatment of heart failure. The first ‘sartan’, losartan potassium, was initially marketed less than 4 years ago and has since been joined by a number of other agents. Attention is now focusing on the individual characteristics of each new compound. An abundance of data were presented on the latest of these agents, candesartan cilexetil, at a Takeda Chemical Industries-sponsored satellite symposium at the 17th Scientific Meeting of the International Society of Hypertension [Amsterdam, The Netherlands; June 1998]. These included data suggesting possible end-organ protective effects that may be independent of the drug's BP lowering effects.