Combination 'polypill' cuts heart disease deaths, study finds
A single pill that combines several heart medications like blood pressure drugs, statins and blood thinner - known as polypill - reduced risk of death in some heart patients.
A single pill that combines three heart medications significantly drove down cardiac-related deaths and other heart problems in people who previously had heart attacks, according to new research published Friday in the New England Journal of Medicine.
The outcomes of the "polypill" were so compelling — a 24% reduction in heart disease-related deaths or further heart problems — that researchers plan to submit the data to the Food and Drug Administration for approval, said the study's lead author, Dr. Valentin Fuster, the director of Mount Sinai Heart and physician-in-chief of Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City.
"The results were, frankly, very exciting," said Fuster, who presented the findings Friday at a meeting of the European Society of Cardiology in Barcelona, Spain.
A paramedic with Anne Arundel County Fire Department takes the blood pressure of a patient in Glen Burnie, Md. on Apr. 9, 2020.Alex Edelman / AFP via Getty Images fileThe idea of a polypill to treat heart disease is not new; researchers have been toying with the idea for two decades. A separate study published in 2020 found that a polypill combining four medications cut the risk of first heart attacks and strokes in people who were at risk for such problems.
Dr. Salim Yusuf, the lead author of the 2020 study and a cardiologist and a professor of medicine at McMaster University in Ontario, said the new research confirms a polypill would provide "substantial" benefits.
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