There are very few areas of clinical pharmacology being pursued as vigorously as hypertension. Numerous new drugs are being discovered and tested both in United States and overseas. The most promising new antihypertensive drugs seem to fall into the angiotensin-renin blocker group and those affecting the sodium-volume axis in hypertensive patients. We can look forward to newer agents that are efficacious as monotherapy and on a daily or twice daily dosage regimen for the treatment of the vast majority of hypertensive patients. There is further hope that preoperative evaluation with angiotensin blockers in patients with renovascular hypertension may improve the predictability of successful renal bypass surgery.