Dr Reddy's polypill halves heart disease and stroke risk in trial

Dr. Reddys Laboratories Ltd. | Pharmaceuticals & Drugs | Healthcare | BSE: 500124 | NSE: DRREDDY

26 May 2011 Evaluate

Dr Reddy's four-in-one combination pill designed to ward off heart problems can halve the risk of heart disease and stroke, found in an international trial. The trial tested the effectiveness and tolerability of the 'polypill' in 378 people who had a raised risk of heart disease but did not necessarily have high blood pressure or cholesterol.

According to researchers, the benefits of the polypill, while large, were not as big as previous studies had suggested, and the side effects were also not as rare as first thought. In the short term, around one in six people in the trial experienced side effects. Although most were mild, about one in 20 people stopped treatment because of them. So the polypill might be best targeted at people with a raised heart disease risk, since the benefits would be more likely to outweigh the side-effect risk.

The polypill contains four established drugs aspirin, a cholesterol-lowering medication called simvastatin, and two other medicines known to lower blood pressure. The medicines are currently prescribed separately to millions of patients and are known to significantly cut the risk of disease, but many experts think combining them into a single pill might encourage people to take the medicines more reliably.