Polypill cuts major cardiovascular events by a third, study finds

A once daily, low cost polypill combining four cardiovascular drugs reduced the risk of major cardiovascular events by a third over a five year period when compared with lifestyle advice, a large study has found.1

Poor adherence is particularly common among patients with cardiovascular disease, as previous studies suggest that around a third of patients stop taking their medicine as early as 90 days after a myocardial infarction.2

The concept of a polypill was first proposed over 15 years ago as a simple, cost saving approach to improve medicine adherence and reduce the burden of cardiovascular disease.3 But …