Thaindian News

Washington, Mar 22 (ANI): Window sills lined with prescription bottles - a pill for cholesterol, another for blood pressure, and an aspirin to keep blood thin and flowing - the list can get quite long and, as a result, many people, especially the elderly, often forget doses or take the wrong pill at the wrong time.

So, what if there was a single pill that had all the benefits of multiple medications in one dose?

Now, a new study done by researchers at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center provides evidence that a polypill may be a viable option for developing countries, where CVD is strongly emerging and the demand for cost-effective, low maintenance treatment is high.

“The idea behind the polypill is that it offers a simpler way to give medications to people so that they will have better adherence to their pills,” said lead author Elsayed Z. Soliman.

“It’s not always easy for people to consistently take multiple pills, even if they are needed to treat a serious condition, like CVD. This is especially true in developing countries, where cost of CVD medications is another major challenge. This one pill has the potential to improve adherence while being less costly to the population in developing countries,” he added.

Soliman and colleagues conducted clinical trials in Sri Lanka, where they enrolled 216 participants without diagnosed CVD.

Half of the participants received ’standard’ treatment for CVD risk prevention, and the other half received the polypill.

Two hundred three patients (94 percent) completed the treatment program and returned for their follow-up visits. No safety concerns were reported.

These findings suggested a high rate of patient acceptability, a finding that is bolstered by the fact that the majority of patients who completed the trial - 90 percent - indicated that they would take the polypill ‘for life’ if proven to be effective in reducing CVD risk.

Approximately 86 percent of the physicians surveyed agreed with and supported use of the polypill for primary prevention and 93 percent for secondary prevention of CVD.

In terms of reduction in CVD risk, both the polypill and ’standard treatment’ resulted in marked reductions in systolic blood pressure, total cholesterol and 10-year estimated risk of CVD.

“Our trial has fulfilled its purposes. We wanted to check the feasibility of doing a large-scale clinical trial with a polypill in a developing country and to examine the acceptability of the polypill by patients and physicians, and we now know that it’s feasible and acceptable,” said Soliman.

Although feasibility has been demonstrated, Soliman explained that there are other important questions about the polypill that still need answers.

“There are many questions, but a single trial will never answer all of them. At least now we know that it is possible to begin looking for the answers,” he said. (ANI)