Single pill strategy to beat cardiovascular diseases

Source: The post is based on the article “Single pill strategy to beat cardiovascular diseases”  published in The Hindu on 2nd August 2023.

What is the News?

The World Health Organization has included three fixed dose combinations of cardiovascular medicines or Polypills on its revised Model Lists of Essential Medicines 2023 for use in cardiovascular diseases.

What are Polypills?

A polypill is a type of drug combination consisting of a single drug product in pill form and thus combines multiple medications. 

The prefix “poly” means “multiple”, referring to the multiplicity of distinct drugs in a given “pill”.

About Polypill strategy to treat cardiovascular diseases:

Polypills are a safe and effective strategy to reduce the risk of heart attacks and strokes.

For instance, a 2000 research has shown that a polypill which combined two or more blood pressure lowering drugs plus a statin and aspirin could significantly reduce the risk of future heart attacks and strokes.

They demonstrated that the polypill reduced the risk of future heart attacks and strokes by about 40% to 50%.