BMJ  2003;326:1407-1408 (28 June), doi:10.1136/bmj.326.7404.1407

Editorial

A cure for cardiovascular disease?

Combination treatment has enormous potential, especially in developing countries

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Today's BMJ contains one of the boldest claims for a new intervention—"a greater impact on the prevention of disease in the Western world than any other known intervention."¹ Is it a new magic bullet for cancer or a new gene therapy? No, it is a new strategy to deliver some of our most well known medicines. Wald and Law propose that a single pill containing aspirin, a statin, three blood pressure lowering agents in half dose, and folic acid is provided to people with vascular disease and those aged over 55 years. They synthesise an enormous amount of information (including over 750 trials with 400 000 participants) to estimate that the pill would reduce heart disease and risk of stroke by over 80%, while causing symptoms warranting withdrawal of the pill in one to two per 100 and fatal side effects in less than one in 10 000 users. If . . . [Full text of this article]

Clinical Trials Research Unit, University of Auckland, PO Box 92019, Auckland, New Zealand (a.rodgers@auckland.ac.nz)

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This article has been cited by other articles:

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• Trewby, P., Trewby, C. (2003). "Polypill" to fight cardiovascular disease: Patients before populations. BMJ 327: 807-807 [Full text]  
• Messori, A., Santarlasci, B., Trippoli, S., Vaiani, M. (2003). "Polypill" to fight cardiovascular disease: Cost effectiveness of statins for primary prevention of cardiovascular events is questionable. BMJ 327: 808-809 [Full text]  
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