Polypill scenario

A "Polypill" describes a daily pill which may contain blood pressure lowering drugs, statins, aspirin and folic acid. A recent small trial showed that a daily Polypill regimen reduced blood pressure by 11% and cholesterol by 39% for over 50’s (Wald et al 2012).

 

The polypill scenario has been discussed for some time as a potential population level cardiovascular disease prevention strategy.

 

Certain key factors which will dictate whether a cardiovascular polypill scenario would influence cardiovascular mortality rates significantly in the UK include

 

• Is there sufficient evidence from larger scale clinical trials that polypills can work effectively?

• The polypill would have to be deemed cost effective to be implemented at the population level

• The long term adherence of a daily treatment regimen in the population would have to be sufficiently high.