One piece of big news out of the recent American College of Cardiology meetings was a “proof of concept” study involving a cardiovascular polypill.
Made up of five cheap, generic medications – aspirin, a statin, a beta-blocker, diruetic, and ace-inhibitor – the pill was shown to be well tolerated and reduce both blood pressure and cholesterol.
Which is exactly what this 5-in-1 pill should do.
That said, we are a ways off from such a drug becoming commonplace. There are various questions yet to be answered, including, whether there is an actual decrease in both total and cardiovascular mortality, as well as whether the long-term side effects of the general population taking these five medications are truly negligible.
It should also be noted that pharmaceutical companies have little incentive to develop such a drug, since its components are generic and provide very little financial return.
A panel over at MedPage Today talks about the implications of the polypill, and cautions against believing the hype surrounding the news.
As one of the panel members says, “We already have a polypill — it’s called exercise.”
Related posts:
- When will we have a safe and effective prescription diet pill?
- Are generic drugs truly equivalent to brand name medications?
- Newsflash: Sleeping medications are being overprescribed
- Pre-authorizations for generic medications
- Idiocy in Missouri
- The Angry Pharmacist on the Medicare donut-hole
- Should docs be paid for switching patients to generics?
{ 2 comments }
Another Lipitor with baby asprins thrown in the mix? The exercise sounds better and is probably safer.
Chuck Brooks
FutureWare SCG
And how is the doc supposed to know which drug caused the side effect the patient has?
And if my pt has a contraindication for one of the drugs, why should he have to pay 4 co-pays instead of one?
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