The 'Polypill' is a single pill that combines a range of drugs that protect against heart disease and stroke and was first considered a number of years ago as a cost effective way to significantly reduce the death toll from cardiovascular disease. But progress has been hampered by the reluctance of pharmaceutical companies to embark on a project involving inexpensive drugs which offered little financial incentive.

Now the Wellcome Trust is funding a team led by Anthony Rogers of the University of Aukland, New Zealand is recruiting 700 volunteers in six countries to start trials of a polypill made by a pharmaceutical company in India.

The single, cheap tablet - the Red Heart Pill - combining the blood-thinner aspirin, a cholesterol-lowering statin, an ACE inhibitor and a thiazide to lower blood pressure, which protect against heart disease and stroke - has already begun pilot trials in human volunteers in Britain.

The Red Heart Pill costs just $1 (70 cents) for a month's supply and is aimed at reducing the risk of heart disease and stroke. Researchers believe that the use of the pill will differ between high income and low income countries because those in high income countries have better access to doctors and other medications. In high income countries, researchers think that people over the age of 55 could be put on a variety of different polypills, depending on their specific needs.

The pill promises to halve the cardiovascular risk and the British trial is just part of a larger international trial of the polypill on 700 volunteers - if successful larger clinical trials involving up to 7,000 people are planned for 2009.

[7 Oct 2008 14:21]

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