Improving Cardiovascular Protection: Focus On a Cardiovascular Polypill

Abstract

Lack of adherence may explain, at least in part, the poor cardiovascular risk factors control observed in patients with ischemic heart disease, increasing the risk of developing new events. Polypill improves medication adherence, which may actually reduce blood pressure and LDL cholesterol compared with the drugs given separately. The fixed combination of acetylsalicylic acid 100 mg + ramipril 2.5, 5, or 10 mg + either simvastatin 40 mg or atorvastatin 20 mg is the unique cardiovascular polypill that has been registered in 22 countries worldwide. The polypill-containing simvastatin has been specifically tested in a clinical trial including only patients with ischemic heart disease. The FOCUS study showed that patients treated with the polypill showed a higher adherence compared with those receiving separate medications.

Reaching Blood Pressure Guideline Targets With the CNIC Polypill in Patients With a Previous Cardiovascular Event in Mexico: A post hoc Analysis of the Sors Study

“…be approved in Europe and Latin America [14,15]. Since patients included in clinical trials differ from those attended in routine practice, studies analyzing the use of cardiovascular drugs in a 'real-life' population seem mandatory [16].…”

The polypill approach – An innovative strategy to improve cardiovascular health in Europe

“…Although modifying patients’ lifestyle and behaviours could partly reduce the recurrence of CV events, [ 12 ], a large body of evidence supports the use of medical therapies as the most effective approach to secondary prevention of CVD [ 14 , 15 ]. The combined use of aspirin, angiotensin-converting-enzyme (ACE) inhibitors and lipid-lowering therapies has been proven [ 16 , 17 ] to be highly effective in lowering the risk of secondary CV events. Indeed, it has been estimated that about two-thirds to three-quarters of future vascular events could be prevented when using these drugs together [ 15 ], and it also leads to a large reduction of CVD-related deaths [ 14 ].…”