STI: 'Super pill' could cut heart disease

April 1, 2009

'Super pill' could cut heart disease

Single pill being tested combines several drugs to reduce multiple risks

 

ORLANDO (FLORIDA): A new, cheap super pill that is being tested could help cut your risk of heart disease in half.

 

A trial in India has shown that this five-in-one pill, which combines low doses of aspirin and drugs that lower blood pressure and cholesterol, appears to be as effective as the individual medicines - and with no worse side effects.

 

The 'polypill' contains low doses of three medications against high blood pressure as well as simvastatin, which lowers LDL - or bad cholesterol - and aspirin, a known blood-thinner.

 

'We believe that the polypill probably has the potential to reduce heart disease by 60 per cent and stroke by 50 per cent,' said lead investigator Salim Yusuf from Canada's McMaster University, which conducted the study.

 

'The thought that people might be able to take a single pill to reduce multiple cardiovascular risk factors has generated a lot of excitement,' he told reporters at the American College of Cardiology's annual meeting, where the study was presented on Monday.

 

'It could revolutionise heart disease prevention as we know it.'

 

The 'Polycap' capsule that was tested was made by Cadila Pharmaceuticals. If such pills work as well as the study indicates, it could save tens of millions of lives around the world.

 

Heart disease is a leading cause of death worldwide, and some 80 per cent of heart disease cases are thought to occur in developing countries.

 

'The concept is simple. Several different drugs are available (generically and thus inexpensively) to treat many of the cardiac risk factors. So, combining them in one pill could reduce heart disease by 80 per cent,' said Dr Christopher Cannon, a Harvard University cardiologist.

 

While reports did not indicate how much the pill could cost, a separate British team that is testing a four-in-one polypill called the Red Heart Pill, say that it could cost as little as €15 (S$30) per person per year, reported the BBC.

 

The study by Dr Yusuf's team involved 2,053 patients, recruited from heart centres around India between March 2007 and August 2008.

 

In the three-month study, cardiologists compared the impact on blood pressure, cholesterol and heart rate of the polypill and the medications that make it up, taken individually or together.

 

The researchers found that blood pressure in participants who took the polypill dropped as much as it did in those who took a combination of blood pressure medications.

 

Those blood pressure reductions 'could theoretically lead to about a 24 per cent risk reduction in congestive heart disease and 33 per cent risk reduction in strokes in those with average blood pressure levels', the study said.

 

Side effects in patients taking the polypill were the same as when taking one or two medications, the study also found.

 

Dr Yusuf described the study as a critical first step for the design of larger, more definitive studies, as well as further development of appropriate combinations of blood pressure-lowering drugs with statins and aspirin.

 

'This approach has obvious appeal and vast implications for global health, because heart disease is the leading cause of death worldwide,' he wrote.

 

Critics, however, are still questioning the use of such pills for lifestyle issues, saying that high blood pressure and cholesterol should be tackled with diet and exercise rather than by simply popping a pill.

 

The British team testing the Red Heart Pill is also hoping to find out whether the polypill can actually reduce mortality.

 

Professor Simon Thom of Imperial College London, who is leading the team, said it would take at least five years before enough data can be obtained to persuade drug regulators to approve a polypill.

 

'Mounting evidence shows the polypill does exactly what it should, but no more, whereas exercise has wide reaching effects on health and well-being,' he was quoted by BBC as saying.

 

'So a polypill is an addition rather than a replacement for lifestyle interventions.'

 

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE