A new tablet is set to go under clinical trials this week. This tablet ‘polipill’ from Indian Drug Company Dr. Reddy, can reduce the risk of death due to heart attacks. It is a cheap drug to protect against heart disease and stroke. 

‘The Welcome Trust and the British Heart Foundation funded an international research team to make the pill an accessible reality very soon. If researchers are to be believed then only a single pill could tackle all the cardiac problems. This once-a-day pill contains four different medicines like aspirin, a statin to lower cholesterol, thaiazide to lower blood pressure and an ACE inhibitor.

For a pilot trial of 12-weeks, seven hundred volunteers have been recruited from six countries. Main trial in thousands of people will start at the end of next year, said the researcher at the University of Auckland in New Zealand. 

Simon Thom, who is running the UK trials said, “The polypill is aimed at reducing the risk of heart disease and stroke in poor and rich countries alike. However, its use will vary around the world.” He also added, “There are particular groups in our community who are not getting the required preventive therapy, both among those at modest cardiovascular risk who are not being evaluated and those at pretty serious risk who have already had a heart attack.”

The Guardian quoted him as saying, “The chances of mainstream pharmaceutical industry taking this on are slim.” We spent a few years around about 2000-2002 trying to persuade a number of companies to do this, but got nowhere. Basically, their whole business model is around people paying a few hundred pounds a year for the latest blockbuster drug. A pill with established medicines that halved cardiovascular risk and could be available for £20 a year could be seen as a threat,” he added.