Angiotensin receptor blockers (ARBs) have shown a blood pressure lowering efficacy which is at least comparable with other drug classes, including ACE inhibitors (ACE-I), beta-blockers, calcium channel blockers and diuretics. ARBs also have a lower side effect profile than other hypertensive agents and patients on ARBs are more persistent with therapy. According to recent evaluation from Canadian real-life database, ARB-based therapies were more associated with better persistence and adherence rates and a lower risk of CV events with superior BP control than non-ARB-based therapies. In this study, the effect of irbesartan was superior to the rest of ARBs. Given poor adherence with therapy has been recognized as a causal factor of failure of hypertension control, excellent persistence should be one of the important reasons to choose ARB for hypertension management. The ARB irbesartan has demonstrated a high efficacy in lowering blood pressure, which has been shown to be at least comparable with ACE-Is and superior to other ARBs such as losartan and valsartan. This means in turn, a better cost-effectiveness for irbesartan than for valsartan and losartan in the management of hypertension. In addition, irbesartan has been shown to be effective in both early and late stage diabetic nephropathy. While both losartan and irbesartan are registered for the treatment of late stage diabetic nephropathy, irbesartan is also registered for early stage diabetic nephropathy. Additionally, irbesartan improves metabolic parameters in hypertensive patients with metabolic syndrome. The effect on metabolic risk factors was more prominent in diabetic patients with metabolic syndrome, which made irbesartan an optimal treatment option for these types of patients. Despite of additional benefit of ARBs, serious concerns about the safety of ARBs has been recently raised especially in terms of cancer incidence. In this presentation, the recent controversial opinions on the association of ARBs and cancer will be addressed. Taken together, the data from randomized clinical trials and observational data from real-life clinical practice provides further evidence of the true value of irbesartan compared to other ARBs in the management of hypertension.