Say goodbye to pill-popping woes

A tray full of medicines and a glass of water, that's how Mr and Mrs Moitra begin their day.
Being cardiac patients, they have been taking separate medicines for diabetes, blood pressure and cholesterol for the past 20 years. "I take seven to eight pills a day. It is really frustrating to have so many medicines at a time," says SN Moitra.

For millions of heart patients like Moitra, the answer to their pill-popping woes could be the new medicine—polypill, which combines the three drugs for diabetes, chlolesterol and blood pressure into one.

But what about the doze? Well, just one pill a day. Managing Director of Dr Reddy's laboratories, Satish Reddy, reveals the cost factor: "We will try and bring down the cost to less than Rs 100 per."

Clinical trials on 600 patients have already begun in India, UK, USA, Australia Brazil and China. But the pill has not got the approval from the American Drug Regulatory Authority so far.

Some experts even express doubts about the dosage. "Since we are putting all the drugs into a capsule, we still don't know if there is going to be interactions between these drugs? Also, if there are going to be problems because of differential absorbtion in stomach or intestine?" says Dr D Prabhakaran, a cardilogist at AIIMS.

Makers of Polypill claim that it reduces risk of a heart disease or stroke by 65 per cent but for that you will have to wait and watch till the second half of next year when the pill launches.

According to latest WHO report, 17 million people die prematurely every year due to heart attacks in lower and middle income countries. Going by this data, polypill might be an effective alternative but access and availability will still remain the larger problems.