A single pill that contains five life-saving drugs to combat bad cholesterol, high blood pressure and clotting at one go, has come closer to reality after passing its first big test.
Scientists announced that polypill, the once-a-day wonder tablet that combines cholesterol-lowering statin, aspirin and three BP lowering drugs was as effective as the drugs taken separately and had no major side effects.
The Indian and Canadian scientists, who announced their finding in the medical journal, The Lancet, on Tuesday, believe that patients suffering from or at risk of cardio-vascular diseases would better adhere to such a combination as it involved taking only one pill instead of five.
The study tested polypill on 2,053 Indians aged 48-80 years who did not have heart disease but had a single risk factor like raised BP, diabetes, obesity or smoking. It concluded that if the pill was given to this population, it would reduce the risk of heart disease by 62% and stroke by 48% because of the fall in their BP and bad cholesterol levels.
Conducted across 50 Indian centres, the study by researchers from McMaster University in Hamilton and St John’s Medical College in Bangalore confirmed in principle that these medicines were safe and tolerable when taken together and are still effective when combined in one fixeddose pill.
Lead investigator, Dr Salim Yusuf, said, “The thought that a single pill could reduce multiple cardiovascular risk factors could revolutionize heart disease prevention. Before this study, there were no data about whether it was even possible to put five active ingredients into a single pill.’’
“We found that it works. The next step would be a major trial of the polypill among people with clear risk of cardiovascular disease. We will further develop appropriate combinations of BP lowering drugs with statins and aspirin,’’ Dr Yusuf added.
Even as the world hailed the magic bullet pill, practising doctors in India weren’t as excited about polypill. Senior consultant (cardiology) at Indraprastha Apollo hospital, Dr Deepak Natarajan, said the pill would not allow flexibility to doctors in modifying drug combinations to suit individual patients.
“In India, generic drugs don’t cost much. So polypill would actually benefit western countries where drug prices are high,’’ he said.
Dr Natarajan said another danger with polypill was unnecessary medication. “For instance, doctors prescribing polypill might subject a patient to strong BP lowering drugs though he might just suffer from high cholesterol.’’
Said Dr Anoop Misra from Fortis, “My real fear is that healthy patients with a single risk factor would start imagining that popping a pill would protect them against heart diseases. They will then give up what is most crucial in preventing CVD — regular exercise and a healthy diet.’’
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